UnMained: CyBooNatural
by Shana Hager
Summary: Nathaniel "Nathan" Turner is among the best Luigi players in the Smash community, and he's just won a laptop in a tournament hosted by Boos. But when an online Halloween hangout with fellow Luigi mains takes a dark turn, Nathan realizes that the Boos have dragged them all into a sinister plot involving the man in green! Can they survive the night...and save their main?
1. The Gift

**October 30, 2019**

**7:00 p.m.**

"GAME!"

Nathaniel "Nathan" Turner exhaled upon hearing those words, the controller falling from his exhausted hands. The Super Smash Bros Ultimate Halloween Tournament had come to an end, and after a bracket which had lasted about two hours, Nathan had emerged the victor. He shook hands with his opponent, stood and flexed his fingers, sore from intense and repetitive button mashing.

The tournament official, a Boo named BooGene, raised Nathan's arm in victory. "Here's your winner!" he sang out, to cheers from the spectators and other Smash players.

BooGene then turned to Nathan. "Good job out there," he said.

"Thanks," said Nathan.

BooGene smirked. "I must say, though—your choice of main…"

"Luigi?" Nathan was considered among the best Luigi mains in the tournament community. "Look, I know you have a beef with him, but—your king _did_ go after his brother. Twice."

"Eh—let bygones by bygones, _I _say," said BooGene. "Congratulations again, Mr. Turner." He patted Nathan on the back and floated off.

Nathan mingled with the other Smash players, exchanging handshakes and hugs with them, before stopping at a dark-haired pregnant woman. This was his fiancée, Victoria "Vicky" Rousselle.

"Way to kick [bleep], Nate," said Vicky.

Nathan smiled and took her in his arms. "You weren't so bad yourself," he said, kissing her on the lips.

Vicky was also a frequent participant in the tournaments, and she'd mained Luigi since the first Smash game's release twenty years ago. She was a strong-willed woman, not about to let her delicate condition stop her from flexing her Smash muscles. And she was also the daughter of Princess Éclair of the Waffle Kingdom, making her second in line to the throne. This was a fact that only Nathan and a few close friends knew about.

Nathan didn't mind—how could he when he was also of royal blood? He was the Crown Prince of the Easton Kingdom, located in Sarasaland, which was ruled, of course, by Princess Daisy. But each of the kingdoms in Sarasaland (Easton, Chai, etc.) was ruled by a monarch who reported to Daisy and her advisors. Tomboyish as she was, Daisy simply couldn't rule a huge empire without some help. Nathan figured that he could afford to compete in a few more tournaments before buckling down and preparing to assume his responsibilities.

"Wanna text L and tell him the good news?" asked Vicky.

"I'll do that when I get home," said Nathan.

"He could be turning in early tonight," said Vicky. "He, Mario, Peach and a couple of Toads are going to that hotel tomorrow, remember?"

"Right—the Last Resort or whatever," said Nathan. "He could be busy packing his stuff, too—but I'll go ahead and shoot him a text."

He fished out his cell phone and opened the Messenger app before tapping Luigi's icon.

_Sry to bother u, but I got some rad news._

"Hey, Nathan!" a voice behind him made him jump.

BooGene floated behind him. "Hey, man!" he said cheerily. "Don't forget to collect your prize!"

"How much?" asked Nathan.

BooGene tilted his head. "We're not talking about a cash prize," he said. "We're talking about something better."

Another Boo floated in, carrying a Dell Inspirion laptop.

"Ta-da!" announced BooGene. "It's your very own laptop! And it's already programmed just for you."

"Wow," breathed Nathan. "It was almost time for me to get a new laptop, anyway. My old one is slowing down."

His phone chimed.

_Let me guess, _Luigi had replied. _U won the tournament?_

_ Yup. Thanks to you, kinda._

_ Lol._

"Sorry," Nathan apologized, putting his phone away. "Family members checking up on me, and all that good stuff."

"I find it quite touching that you're actually friends with your main," BooGene said craftily. "Oh, yes, Nathan—I know all about that. We Boos know _everything_."

BooGene put the laptop in a purple laptop sleeve and handed it to Nathan. "Take good care of this, okay?" he entreated. "This laptop—is very _special_. A special laptop for a special Smash player."

"You—really think I'm special?" asked Nathan.

"Indeed," BooGene replied. "Tomorrow's Halloween, you know. Are you doing anything special?"

"Probably—breaking in my new laptop," shrugged Nathan.

"_I _plan to spend my Halloween with my fellow Boos," said BooGene, "and as for my king's plans—he's gonna do some catching up with an _old_ _friend_."

More Boos had floated into the venue, and now they began to cackle along with BooGene.

"But—you have fun with your new _special_ laptop," BooGene went on. "After all—you've earned it."

More cackling.

The Boos then turned to the other spectators and tournament players.

"Thank you for joining us at our annual Halloween Smash Tournament," said BooGene. "We really hope you enjoyed yourselves. But now—it's time to go."

Exchanging looks, everyone gathered their things and left the venue as the Boos licked out their tongues and leered at everyone.

Nathan had his arm around Vicky as they strode to the former's car.

"A laptop, huh?" mused Vicky.

"It _is_ strange," conceded Nathan.

"Just between us—I think you should be careful with that laptop," cautioned Vicky. "It's from a _Boo_, after all. And while Boos are cute on the outside—they're downright ugly on the inside."

"Say that again," said Nathan.

He took out his phone and sent Luigi another text: _Have fun 2morrow._

_ I will, _Luigi texted back. _You bet I will._

Oh, if only they knew…

**Please R&R.**


	2. Logging In

**October 31, 2019**

**7:30 p.m.**

Nathan fired up his new laptop and was shocked to find that everything had already been configured for him, just like the Boos had said. All he had to do was to insert his thumbprint into the sensor so that he could sign in without a password. After he set up the Wi-Fi connection, Nathan was taken to the home page. The desktop background showed a large Boo with violet eyes and a gleaming bejeweled crown.

_King Boo_, Nathan thought with a shudder.

Vicky waddled into the room. "Hey, Nate," she said. "How's the new computer treating you?"

"So far, so good," Nathan replied, kissing her on the lips.

"What's that creep King Boo doing on your desktop?" asked Vicky, making a face.

"I dunno," shrugged Nathan. "I'll change it later."

He opened the "Settings" tab and clicked the "Change Background" prompt. Unfortunately, all of the other choices were pictures of Boos.

"Huh," said Nathan. "I'll upload my own photo, then."

He'd come back to that later. Right now, he wanted to explore the laptop's other features.

First things first, he launched Google Chrome and opened the Napster web page, pursing his lips when he saw that the Username and Password fields were auto filled with someone else's information.

"KBoo2U?" asked Vicky. "Who's that?"

"Whoever he is, he probably forgot to reset the data on this thing," Nathan replied, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, probably," mused Vicky.

Clearing the data, Nathan signed into his Napster account and scrolled down the list of his favorite songs, picking one at random.

"'Crab Rave'?" asked Vicky. "Really?"

The two of them laughed.

As the music played, Nathan synched his Google, Facebook, Microsoft and OneDrive accounts to his new computer. He used the Dell Mobile Connect feature to link his phone. Then, he browsed through his photos, looking for the perfect replacement to his current desktop photo.

"How about—this one?" Vicky piped up, pointing to a picture of the two of them together, looking so in love.

"It's kinda mushy—but—yeah," grinned Nathan, selecting the photo and clicking "Save".

Yet when he closed all of his windows—the desktop was still of King Boo grinning evilly at him.

"Okay—let's try again," muttered Nathan.

He did so, but with the same result.

And the same result happened after trying several more times.

"That's weird," said Vicky.

"I just don't want King Boo's face grinning at me every time I fire this thing up," said Nathan. "Eh—whatever. I'll just try not to let him get to me. He's trapped in a vault, anyway."

"True," said Vicky.

The engaged couple fooled around with the laptop for a bit, using the camera function to take selfies and record videos and then creating a Halloween playlist.

"Wait a sec," Vicky said after a while. "What's that?"

She pointed to a desktop file labeled "Untitled".

Nathan shook his head. "Like I said, the previous owner forgot to backup and reset the d—n thing," he huffed. "It's not my business to poke around someone else's files."

A prompt popped onto the screen, asking if Nathan would like to allow others to sign into the PC with their own accounts.

Nathan smiled over at Vicky. "Why not?" he asked.

He scooched over so that his fiancée could enter her own information into the laptop, finishing by registering her thumbprint.

"This is so cool," Vicky mused when she was finished.

"Say that again," replied Nathan. "It's working better than my old, obsolete piece of crap."

Vicky's desktop background photo was also a photo of King Boo—only this time he was shyly hiding his face.

"Now _that_ one's kinda cute," she laughed, but there was a nervous timbre to it.

Her phone vibrated, and she answered it.

"Really? Oh, all right. I'm on my way," she said.

Turning to Nathan, she explained, "It was a reminder about that social function I told you about."

"The Waffle Kingdom Halloween Bash," said Nathan. "Will Daisy be there? I'm sure she'll want at least one representative of all of Sarasaland's kingdoms."

"This is more of a—girls' night out type of deal, but without the alcohol, of course," said Vicky. "No offense."

"None taken," smiled Nathan.

"I'd better get ready," said Vicky, giving Nathan a kiss before hitting the shower.

"I'd better check on Luigi," murmured Nathan, signing into Messenger.

_Hey, L,_ he typed. _I hope you, Mario, Peach and the Toads reached your destination safely._

He waited, choosing another song to play.

_Yeah, we made it,_ Luigi replied. _Thx for the concern. We're all checked in and lounging in our rooms. I dozed on and off during the trip, you know._

_ LOL._

_ They had a buffet for us. You should've seen Mario making a beeline for it. Polterpup ate a piece of cake right out of his hand._

_ OMG._

_ And Peach had so much luggage. I mean—J—s. Why did she have to pack so much? We're only staying about a week or so._

_ Better not let her catch you typing that._

_ You're on your new laptop? How's it working?_

_ Okay, for the most part. Hold on, let me call you._

Nathan clicked on Luigi's profile picture and selected the "Call" prompt.

The video feed then showed the man in green himself, lounging on a bed in a room bathed with golden light.

"Hello, handsome," said Nathan. "It's good to see your face."

"It's good to see yours," replied Luigi.

"What kind of person names a hotel the Last Resort?" asked Nathan.

Luigi shrugged. "The staff is cordial enough," he said. "They were wearing creepy-looking masks, though."

"Why were they wearing masks?"

"Beats me." Nathan then noticed the ghostly dog curled up in Luigi's lap. "Hey, Polterpup. What's shakin', bacon?"

Polterpup woofed happily in response.

"I've had him for six whole years," laughed Luigi. "Can't you believe it?"

"I still can't believe that you even _have_ a ghost dog," chuckled Nathan.

"Times change," said Luigi. "So—this new laptop of yours—could you tell me about it?"

"It's a Dell Inspirion," said Nathan, "and it was already pre-configured. I can add other users to it, I can sign in using only my fingerprint—and it runs fast enough for me to use my Skype account without any difficulty. The previous user forgot to remove some of their data—but other than that, I'm loving this laptop so far." He decided not to tell Luigi about the desktop image of King Boo.

Luigi beamed. "Would you—like to see my room?" he asked.

"Sure," replied Nathan.

Luigi slid out of the bed and turned the camera around, giving Nathan a view of his hotel room. A gift basket and some balloons sat on a desk, and a smiley-face popped out of the closet. There was a living room and a small kitchen—and even a Jacuzzi in the bathroom.

"My God," breathed Nathan. "They're pampering you good!"

"Aren't they?" asked Luigi. "I'm probably gonna take a soak in the Jacuzzi later tonight—after trying out one of the restaurants."

Nathan laughed. "I want you to enjoy yourself, all right?" he said. "This getaway is all about you and your loved ones."

"Okeydokey, Nathan. I'll call you in the morning," said Luigi. "By the way, are you doing anything special for Halloween tonight?"

"I'm Skyping my friends later, and we'll play scary games and tell each other spooky stories."

Vicky walked back in, dressed like the Shadow Queen. "Is that Luigi?" she asked.

"It sure is," replied Nathan.

"Hi, Vicky!" said Luigi. "Greetings from the Last Resort!"

"Are you and your friends just chilling?" asked Vicky.

"We are," replied Luigi, settling back into his bed. "Where are you off to?"

"Girls' night out slash social function in the Waffle Kingdom," explained Vicky.

"Which reminds me, I'd better change into my own costume," said Nathan.

"A virtual costume party with your friends?" asked Luigi.

"You betcha," said Nathan. "Maybe the Last Resort should host a Halloween party or at least do _something_ Halloween-themed."

"That would be interesting," said Luigi.

"All right—I'd better get a move-on," said Vicky. "Nate—I'll join your Skype chat when I get there."

"Okay," said Nathan.

Vicky bent down and kissed him.

"Knock them dead," smiled Nathan.

"I'll do my best," said Vicky. "Talk to you later, Luigi."

"All right, Vicky."

Gathering her things, Vicky blew a kiss to Nathan before heading out.

"Remember what I said," Nathan told Luigi. "No stress and no negative vibes. Got it?"

"Got it," replied Luigi. "See ya, Nate."

"See ya."

Nathan hung up, closed his laptop and jumped into a cool shower before slipping into a Luigi costume. When he was finished, he opened the laptop back up.

"What the…?" he uttered.

He'd just received a message from someone he didn't know.

_You're online. Good. Then everything's arranged._

The message was from someone named BooLivia.

Another incoming message was a photo of several Boos posing.

_Can't wait to get this party started, Your Grace,_ messaged another individual named BooLinda.

_Our friend won't even see it coming._ That was from someone named Bookett.

_Are you ready, Your Grace? 3:D_ That was from one Boostace.

Were these—Boos?

Did this laptop—used to belong to a Boo?

Not just to any Boo…

…but _King_ Boo?

Did the Boos give Nathan their King's laptop? And if so—why?

Was it on accident? Did King Boo acquire a new laptop and forget to erase the data from his old one before giving it away? Because a _King_ would never forget something like that.

Nathan couldn't shake the fact that maybe this was intentional. The Boos hosting the tournament, him _winning_ the tournament and then getting this laptop as a prize.

But—King Boo was in that vault, wasn't he? How could he have gotten his hands on a laptop?

Unless he escaped…

No, no, no! That was impossible! Luigi and the Professor—made sure…

Nathan shook his head, as if to clear it. He needed to follow his own advice—no negative vibes. Maybe this was someone playing a practical joke. It _was_ Halloween, after all.

A smile stretched across his face as his screen displayed an incoming Skype call.

Good. Time for him to get his mind off of this.

A night of Halloween fun was about to begin.

**Please R&R.**


	3. The Gang's All Here

**October 31, 2019**

**8:24 p.m.**

"Happy Halloween!" Nathan sang out as the Skype chat connected.

"Hey, Nate!" greeted Elegant, another renowned Luigi main in the tournament scene. "How goes it?"

"Just fine. And you?" asked Nathan.

"Can't complain," said Elegant. "Hey, we're both dressed as Luigi!"

Nathan laughed heartily. "Well, we _are_ his mains," he said.

"What's on the agenda tonight?" asked a woman with short blonde hair, seated next to another woman with brunette hair. Their names, respectively, were Sophie and Melanie.

"Well, _I_ was thinking of something a little—old school," said Elegant, holding up a black box.

"No way! 'Cards Against Humanity'?" Nathan laughed again. "Elegant, you read my mind!"

"Well, I was thinking," said Elegant, "after a few rounds of this, how about I invite you all over to my place for a small Halloween get-together? And if you have a 3DS, then you can bring it—I have both _Luigi's Mansion_ games."

"I thought only the second one supports multiplayer," said Melanie, who was dressed as Peach.

"Oh—right! My mistake," said Elegant.

"But that sounds like a great idea," Melanie added.

"Indeed," Sophie, who was dressed as Daisy, chimed in, holding up a box which read, _The bigger, blacker box._ "I bought this just for Melanie because—I'm compensating for something."

Everyone cracked up.

"Oh, man! I'm laughing so hard right now!" cried Elegant.

"Who wants to start us off?" asked Elegant.

"Allow me," said Nathan's close friend, Noah. He cleared his throat. "NASA has announced that blank may be headed on a collision course with blank."

"Good one, Noah," said Elegant. "All right—who's first? Nate?"

Nathan stifled a chuckle. "NASA has announced that spaghetti may be headed on a collision course with the sun."

"Boy—Mario would like that," mused Elegant.

"NASA has announced that Baskin-Robbins may be headed on a collision course with Galactic NOVA," said Sophie.

"What?" guffawed Nathan.

"Because apparently, Baskin-Robbins knows everything," shrugged Sophie.

A woman with long, jet black hair, named Jacqui, threw out the next suggestion. "NASA has announced that a gigantic c—k may be headed on a collision course with Popstar!"

"Jacqui!" Nathan spluttered, exploding into a laughing fit.

"Okay—I'm gonna go with Jacqui," snickered Elegant.

"Whoa, Nate—I can see the pores on your face," said Sophie. "What's going on over there?"

"It actually looks like you're calling from the year 2019," Noah chimed in.

"Oh, um…" Nathan blushed a little. "I got a new laptop."

"Brand-new?" asked Noah.

"He won it in the tournament yesterday," said Elegant. "Hey, Nate, I forgot to say GGs."

"GGs," replied Nathan.

"Hey, Jacqui—cool costume," said Melanie.

"Thanks," Jacqui replied. She was dressed as the fan-made result of the Koopa King wearing the Super Crown, known simply as Koopette.

"Who do you guys ship her with, anyway?" asked Jacqui. "Personally, I ship her with Peach."

"Me, too," said Sophie.

"Me, three," said Elegant.

"I ship her with Mario," said Nathan, "but I'm all for her and Peach, too."

"We can talk more about Koopette and her relative, Booette, when you're at my place later," said Elegant. "I've got chips, dip, boursin and crackers, Oreos, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey bars, ice cream, cake—and we'll sit around talking about Koopette and Booette and who we ship them with while playing on the Scarescraper!"

"Sounds like a plan," said Jacqui.

"Hey, Nate—I hear that Luigi's taking a little vacay with his pals at this—Last Resort," said Elegant.

"He is," said Nathan. "Last I checked, they've all settled in and are probably about to turn in for the night."

"He gave me a buzz a few minutes ago," said Elegant. "He sounded pretty relaxed. I'd invite him, too, but he'd just arrived from a long and quite possibly stressful trip, so I figured—why not let him rest?"

The feed suddenly glitched before cutting out.

Nathan huffed. "Are you serious?" he grumbled as Skype reloaded.

Facebook notifications from people he'd never even heard of began popping up, talking about some sort of project.

Nathan clicked on one of the notifications and received the shock of his life.

"This is King Boo's account," he murmured as more messages from Boos began flooding Messenger.

Could this mean he escaped? _How_ could he have escaped? According to the Professor, King Boo was in a special vault beneath the former's secret Bunker. It would be near impossible to escape _that_!

Maybe the power of hate had something to do with that.

Shuddering slightly, Nathan logged out of King Boo's account and back into his own account before reconnecting with the Skype chat.

Elegant was in the middle of an epic rant about how Nintendo constantly made Luigi their butt-monkey.

"Just last year, they had Death slash his soul out!" he said hotly. "That sent everyone into an uproar! I mean, what _haven't_ they done to him yet?!"

"C'mon, Elegant," said Noah. "It's all in good fun."

"Luigi would beg to differ," huffed Elegant. "He deserves better!"

"Amen," said Melanie.

"Don't encourage him," warned Jacqui.

Nathan messaged Noah. _Elegant is one devoted main, isn't he?_

_ Ikr,_ Noah typed back. _Hey, did you crash or something?_

_Yup, _Nathan replied. _I got the dreaded blue ring. It's happened twice now. Guess that's what happens when you win a laptop in a tournament—there's always a catch._

_ A constantly crashing laptop usually means the hard drive is full._

Nathan opened up the File Explorer and saw that Noah was right.

_So much for a new laptop,_ he thought.

"I hate that!" Elegant was shouting. "And—you know, everyone hates it! But they're sitting around and going, 'All right, Nintendo, whatever you say, you're the boss.' It's like Luigi was made to be a joke, and he's not! I admit it, I might be biased, but Luigi's more than a joke! He fights ghosts! Mario just—gets captured by them."

Everyone else murmured in agreement.

_Bingo,_ typed Nathan. _The hard drive is almost full, but I don't see any files._

_ Could be browser cache, virtual memory, hidden files, _typed Noah. _Here, run this app._ And then he sent Nathan a link.

Nathan clicked the link and was taken to a site called DaisyDisk. He clicked on the "Free Trial" prompt, and the app began to scan the laptop.

While DaisyDisk was scanning for hidden files, Nathan re-opened the Messenger window and clicked on his conversation with Luigi.

_Hey, L, _he typed. _Sorry to bother you, but I'm starting to think that the computer I won used to belong to King Boo. I'm getting all sorts of messages from Boos on here, so it's likely he's escaped. You, Mario, Peach and Toad need to be careful…_

The scan was finished. And according to DaisyDisk, whatever was on "Untitled" was taking up most of the hard drive. To add insult to injury, the "Untitled" folder was hidden.

_Do you know how to reveal hidden files?_ He messaged Noah.

_Sure_, replied Noah.

As Noah walked Nathan through the process, he heard Elegant strumming on a guitar, serenading everyone with a tune about Luigi. Melanie, Sophie and Jacqui looked charmed.

Once the "Untitled" folder was revealed, Nathan clicked on it and was taken to a list of seemingly random videos. One video was of Peach and a few Toads bustling around in her castle's kitchen. Another was of Daisy in a sundress, strumming a ukulele, pausing to take a bite of a bagel smeared with cream cheese. A third video showed Mario, clad in a pair of red swim briefs, plunging into a pool. And a fourth showed Luigi in his living room, shirtless, dancing to music blaring from a nearby stereo without a care in the world.

"By the way," Elegant was saying. "I just bought some new speakers. Here, take a listen."

Nathan nearly jumped out of his seat at the sudden explosion of sound. A remixed version of the _Luigi's Mansion_ theme began to play, and everyone else on the Skype chat could hear it, as well.

"Turn it down, Elegant!" snapped Noah.

"All right, all right," said Elegant, decreasing the volume on his speakers.

"Show off," muttered Jacqui.

"But it's totally the bomb, right?" asked Elegant.

"You made your point," said Noah.

"Guys," Sophie spoke up, causing everyone to quiet. "Melanie and I have some interesting news we'd like to share." The two women were now cuddling together on the sofa.

"Wait—where's Vicky?" asked Noah.

"She has duties in the Waffle Kingdom," Nathan explained. "I don't think she'll be able to join us at Elegant's later."

Melanie and Sophie exchanged a look before the former flashed a dazzling ring at the camera.

"Ta-da!" she sang out.

Everyone cheered.

"Oh, my God—I'm so happy for you two!" exclaimed Jacqui.

"You gotta tell us all the deets!" Noah chimed in.

"Well," said Melanie, "we were having lunch at our favorite restaurant, and for dessert, Sophie ordered a huge sundae for us to share. And—there it was, attached to the cherry's stem in a small, protective bag." She sighed. "I thought it was the sun."

"My sister helped me pick it out," said Sophie.

"Janelle?" asked Elegant.

"Aw—that's wonderful, sharing this special moment with your sis," cooed Jacqui.

"Did you talk to Melanie's dad?" asked Elegant.

"Of course, I did," eyerolled Sophie.

"And did you film it?" Elegant went on. "Man—that would've been _so_ fun to see!"

"No, I didn't film it," said Sophie, "but he took it surprisingly well, seeing that he struck me as sort of—old-fashioned."

"How about Emily?" asked Nathan, referring to Sophie's niece. "Is she excited?"

Sophie nodded. "Very," she replied. "Man—she's growing up. I remember the day I first held her in my arms. Now, she's eight years old."

"She's probably out trick-or-treating as we speak," Jacqui piped up.

"It won't be long before she outgrows that," sighed Sophie.

"I remember those innocent days, going from door to door as my neighbors filled my jack-o-lantern to the brim," said Elegant. "Truth is—I wasn't dressed as Luigi all the time. Sometimes—I was dressed as Toad."

Silence.

Elegant grinned. "Hello," he said in a perfect imitation of Toad's high-pitched voice.

Laughter.

"And by the way…" Elegant went on, holding up a certificate. "I've just been ordained. I can totally marry you two."

Melanie smiled. "There's nothing more romantic than a Luigi main officiating at your wedding," she said.

"Speaking of Luigi," said Nathan. "We should totally invite him."

Everyone else chattered in agreement.

Nathan was then notified of an incoming call from Luigi.

"Sorry, folks," said Nathan. "I gotta take this."

"Take your time," said Noah.

As soon as Nathan clicked on the link, however, he couldn't believe his eyes…

**Things heat up next chapter!**


	4. Halloween Hangout

**Content warning for blood and disturbing imagery.**

**October 31, 2019**

**9:15 p.m.**

Nathan stared at the image of the man in green for a full fifteen seconds. It was as if he was looking at a different person in a different scene. Luigi was in a darkened room, pale and sweaty and shaking, his pupils dilated and his chest heaving. Small whimpers escaped him, and he clutched a flashlight tightly in one hand.

"Luigi," gasped Nathan. "What in God's name happened? Are you all right?"

"N—no," stammered Luigi. "K—King Boo—he—he…"

"King Boo's stuck in a vault somewhere," said Nathan. "You mean to tell me he escaped?"

Luigi nodded. "And—he—has—my—my—friends…"

"How did he find you?" asked Nathan.

"A scream woke me up," said Luigi. "The atmosphere had changed into something dark and threatening. When I checked my friends' rooms, I found signs of a struggle. And while I was walking down the hallway—I saw them…"

Luigi swallowed and continued. "They—he had them all in paintings, and they looked so _terrified_. Before I could get a closer look at them, they disappeared, and then I was looking at _him_. I'll never forget the hatred in his glowing violet eyes as long as I live. And—he was gonna trap me in a portrait, too! I—just ran. I ran and ran and ran as he chased after me, knocking down anything in his way to get at me. If I hadn't found a laundry chute, then I would've been done for!" Tears began sliding down his face.

"Where are you now—in a laundry room?"

"Yeah," sniffled Luigi.

"All right, calm down. I'm gonna get you some help," said Nathan. "Just stay where you are."

"No way," said Luigi. "King Boo's probably still looking for me! I have to keep moving!" In a lower voice, he said, "It looks like I'm on the basement floor. I'm gonna take a look around and see if I can find anything."

Faint barking sounded, and Nathan was relieved to learn that at least Polterpup was okay.

"How the [bleep] did King Boo escape, anyway?" asked Nathan.

He jumped at the sound of a Facebook notification: _Hellen Graverly tagged you in a post._

"Okay," muttered Nathan. "Who the [bleep] is Hellen Graverly?"

He clicked on the notification, where he was promptly taken to King Boo's Facebook account.

"Oh, my God," he uttered.

"What?" asked Luigi.

Nathan scrolled down King Boo's timeline, gazing at a photo of the Master of Illusions with an elegantly dressed female ghost wearing shades.

_A night of fun with my idol_, read the post.

Scrolling further down, Nathan saw that this Hellen Graverly character had been King Boo's Facebook friend for over a year. _She_ must've helped him escape, and the two of them had spent the past year or so planning their next move, with Luigi unaware.

"Nathan—what's going on?" asked Luigi.

"Uh—who's Hellen Graverly?"

"She's the proprietor of the Last Resort," Luigi said to him. "Why?"

"Luigi—I believe you and your friends have walked right into a trap," said Nathan.

"Yeah, you _think_?" huffed Luigi.

"How much you wanna bet that this Hellen individual is in on it?"

"Of course, she's in on it! I saw her get into the elevator before…" Luigi took several calming breaths. "Do you know her?"

"Well—this laptop's kinda funny," said Nathan.

"How so?"

"The previous user forgot to erase their info and reset the system," said Nathan, "so I'm still getting notifications from that person's account. I now have reason to believe that—King Boo used to own this laptop. I've gotten messages from Boos—and I've just been taken to King Boo's Facebook account. I saw that this Hellen had tagged him in a post."

Just then, Hellen sent a message. _We make a great team, you and me. Perhaps more than a team._

_ Out of curiosity, what are your plans for them?_

_ I'd love to watch, you know. See you in action._

_ I'd love to spend some time alone with the Princess. I have a bit of a preference for ladies, too—if you know what I mean._

"She just messaged him," said Nathan.

"Don't engage," warned Luigi. "I don't want you getting involved, all right?"

"I'm already involved," objected Nathan. "I could be holding his old laptop."

"Nathan, please. King Boo wants nothing more than revenge for what I did to him," said Luigi. "He's got Mario, Peach, the Toads—he'll have no compunction with going after you and anyone near you just to get to me."

"He doesn't know who I am," said Nathan.

"His magic will help him find out," said Luigi. "Listen to me—you need to lock your doors, and don't open them for anyone you don't know. Secure your windows, don't take calls from unknown numbers and arm yourself." Nathan heard someone rummaging around. "I think Polterpup found something. I gotta let you go for now." Luigi drew a breath. "Take care."

"Keep me posted," said Nathan, and then Luigi hung up.

Nathan stroked his chin as he gazed at Hellen's messages. If this laptop used to belong to King Boo, then perhaps he could use it to his advantage to help Luigi save his loved ones.

_I'll arrange something,_ he typed.

He then clicked on Hellen's name, gaining access to her profile. Instantly, his suspicions were confirmed.

King Boo was one of her friends.

_Not on FB, _Hellen typed back. _It's not safe. Let's chat on BooSpace._

Nathan frowned.

Switching back to Skype, he messaged Noah.

_ Hey—ever heard of BooSpace?_

_Not really, _Noah replied. _What's that?_

Nathan once again clicked on the File Explorer tab, and just above the UNTITLED folder was a program called "BooSpace".

_Maybe it's a social networking site for Boos_, he thought as the program began to run.

The username and password fields were already auto-filled, so Nathan could simply log in. As soon as he did so, however—his desktop wallpaper changed. Instead of King Boo, it showed a picture of a tall, tall building, backdropped by a starry sky as Boos floated around.

"What in God's name…?" breathed Nathan.

"Sounds like someone's been meditating," Noah said.

"Nate—are you all right?" asked Sophie.

"Yeah—who were you talking to just now?" asked Elegant.

"Guys—I think Luigi and company are in some sort of trouble," said Nathan.

"What do you mean?" asked Melanie.

"He called me," explained Nathan, "and he told me that King Boo somehow escaped and captured his friends."

"How?" asked Noah.

"I think—someone named Hellen Graverly helped him."

"And how do you know this?" asked Jacqui.

"My—laptop," Nathan replied. "It's—acting really weird."

Noah blinked. "Share your screen with us," he said, "so we can have a look."

Quickly, Nathan enabled the screen share widget. Elegant, Noah, Jacqui, Melanie and Sophie sat there, gawking at Nathan's display.

"Whoa," said Elegant. "It's like your screen's actually _moving_…"

"It is," said Nathan. "It switched when I connected."

"To what?" frowned Noah.

"This—thing called BooSpace," replied Nathan.

"Uh-huh," said Elegant. "Sort of like—MySpace for Boos, am I right?"

"Who uses MySpace in 2019?" asked Sophie.

"No f—ing way," gasped Noah. "You uncovered a social network for Boos?"

"Looks like it," shrugged Nathan.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out," said Sophie. "Those Boos are bad mothers, Nathan. I'm talking about serious [bleep]."

Melanie nodded. "I think you should leave whatever that is alone," she added.

A chat window popped up, accompanied by a Boo's cackle.

"Whoa," said Noah. "Look at all those Boos."

"You're saying you _won_ this laptop?" asked Jacqui. "Boy—this sounds familiar…"

"Yeah. I won a Smash tournament fair and square, and the laptop was the reward," said Nathan. "It was a special Halloween tournament, hosted by Boos."

"Wait a minute—you're saying Boos hosted a Smash tournament?" Melanie broke in. "That should've been a major red flag, Nathan!"

"Yeah, I was a little antsy," said Nathan, "but I figured, hey, Halloween was around the corner, and I could have another opportunity to flex my Smash muscle. Anyway, as soon as I booted everything up, all of this stuff was auto-filled." He showed them all the Facebook page.

"King Boo really has a FB account?" interjected Elegant. "Man, he has some serious brass ones!"

"Hey, King Koopa has one, too," said Jacqui. "He sent me a friend request a while back."

"Yeah, because villains always have time for social media when they're not conjuring up various diabolical schemes," scoffed Noah.

"Well, if his account is active, then that means—he's been out of that vault longer than he wants us to think," cautioned Sophie.

"Or maybe he had Internet privileges or something," said Jacqui. "The Professor is—scatter-brained like that. Remember when he sold the portrait at the yard sale and caused the whole Dark Moon episode to happen?"

"Sometimes, I really worry about the Professor," Noah put in. "He should just retire already, before he makes a mistake."

"Let's—not get off-topic, shall we?" said Melanie. "Nate—go back to the beginning."

"Okay, here we go," said Nathan. "When I first booted up this thing, it started acting off, so I scanned the hard drive and found a hidden folder which was taking up most of the space."

"Could you open that folder for us, please?" asked Noah.

"Of course," said Nathan, reopening the UNTITLED folder.

"Hey—I know those addresses," breathed Jacqui. "They're near the MK's capital—and Sarasaland, as well!"

Nathan opened and viewed more files from UNTITLED. Some Toads hurrying downstairs. Peach hosting a tea party. Daisy soaking in a Jacuzzi. Luigi, shirtless, washing his car, his bare upper body repetitively smacking against a soapy window. Mario and Peach on a bed, making out and divesting the other of their garments.

"He's been watching them," Noah gasped.

"Those videos go a few years back," said Elegant. "They _have_ to be the work of his underlings."

"He had his minions keep tabs on Luigi and company while plotting his escape," said Nathan, "but the question is—how did he come into contact with this Hellen Graverly in the first d—n place?"

"Maybe—King Boo has his own fan base," guessed Sophie, "just like Luigi."

Nathan did a swift Google search on Hellen Graverly and immediately struck gold.

"You're right, Sophie," he said. "Hellen Graverly is the president of the King Boo Fan Club. She's manning a Facebook group dedicated to him, and she's written him fan letters. And check this—in September of last year, she started a fundraiser. _That_ must've been how she helped him."

"Wow," said Elegant.

Nathan messaged Luigi with the links to Hellen's Facebook profile, Facebook group and the King Boo Fan Club's main page. _I hope this sheds some light on the subject!_ He added.

_Ur only a year late_, Luigi replied.

_Ya I know. Sorry. _

He perused through several more UNTITLED files. Mario, asleep in his bed. Daisy, walking around naked except for a pair of orange panties. Peach in a similar state of undress, except the panties were pink.

"King Boo, you're f—ing sick," gasped Elegant.

"His minions could've struck at any time," said Jacqui, "but they didn't."

"Because it's all part of his game," said Elegant. "That's his m.o.—he wants to toy with Luigi and friends and strike when they least expect it."

"J—s," said Melanie.

Nathan was startled by an incoming Skype call notification from Vicky. Quickly, he clicked "Accept".

"Hey!" Vicky greeted brightly. "What did I miss?"

"A lot," Noah replied. "For starters, King Boo escaped. He has Mario, Peach and three Toad retainers."

"I thought they were on vacation," said Vicky.

"The vacation turned out to be a trap," said Nathan, "and he's got help from his fan-club president, one Hellen Graverly. She owns that hotel."

Vicky paled. "Is Luigi okay?"

"For the most part. He managed to escape."

"My God. Where's the Poltergust when you need it?"

"Exactly," huffed Nathan.

Suddenly, the BooSpace chat window showed a message from Hellen: _So, what are your plans for them?_

Everyone stared at the message.

"She's talking about Mario and company," said Noah.

"Well, say something," said Elegant. "We don't want her to get suspicious."

_Still working on that,_ typed Nathan.

"Wait—don't," cautioned Sophie, but Nathan had already sent the message.

_Don't you want Luigi to feel what you felt?_ Hellen asked.

"Type in 'That—and more'," instructed Elegant.

Nathan obliged.

_We have those he holds dear, but we need him, too,_ typed Hellen.

"Almost all of them," said Elegant. "He doesn't have Daisy, thank God in Heaven."

"Elegant, please, put a cork in it," sighed Noah.

_He needs to watch. He needs to witness what happens when he crosses you._

Nathan replied with the first thing that came to his mind: _Who should we have fun with first? Mario?_

"Nathan, what are you…?" Jacqui spoke up.

Nathan shushed her as Hellen sent her reply.

_No. I'm thinking—Peach._

"Wh—what is she talking about?" asked Sophie.

_Let's give her the royal treatment. I've always wanted to know what it's like—to be with a woman._

Elegant turned green. "Wow—she's just as twisted as King Boo," he said.

_I want you to film us. And another Boo can film _them_._

Noah cursed.

"Oh, my God," said Sophie.

_I want to see their eyes as it's happening, _Hellen went on. _I want _her_ to see their eyes as it's happening. Bring a mirror. I want her to see it happening. And I want to see you reacting to it. I want to see you relishing in their pain—especially _his_ pain._

"Nate—please, just get out of there," Vicky entreated.

_I want him to know that this is all his fault. I want him to know that you're a King who always gets even._

"Shut it off, Nathan," said Elegant.

_I want him to witness the extent of our mercy by witnessing what we'll do to each of his friends. We shouldn't end his game—that would be _too_ easy._

"Nathan, for C—st's sake, shut it off!" shouted Noah.

"Please, Nathan, shut it off!" Sophie exclaimed.

"Okay, all right!" said Nathan, closing the window and leaving BooSpace.

Everyone sat there in stunned silence.

"We—we can't just sit here," Melanie said after a while. "We have to get help!"

"How?" asked Elegant. "We don't even know where this Last Resort is located!"

The "incoming video call" chime sounded.

"Thank God—it's Luigi!" cried Sophie. "Answer it, Nathan!"

Nathan clicked "Answer", and right off the bat, he noticed that Luigi had calmed down somewhat. Looking closer, he could also see those familiar straps over Luigi's shoulders.

"Hi, Luigi," said Nathan.

"Hey, Nate," said Luigi. "Look what I've got!" He held up a vacuum nozzle and twisted slightly to reveal a red apparatus with a tank attached.

"All right! You have a new Poltergust!" exclaimed Nathan.

"The Poltergust G-00 to be exact," said Luigi, "and it's not entirely new. I'm using it in the Smash tournaments, remember?"

"Oh, right," said Nathan. "Luigi—I'm sharing my screen with the friends I'm Skype-ing with. Guys—can you see him?"

"Yup," said Noah.

"Yeah," said Melanie and Sophie.

"Yes," said Jacqui.

"Yep," said Elegant.

"Hey, everyone," said Luigi. "Can you hear me?"

"They can see you, but they can't hear you," said Nathan. "The Poltergust—where did you find it?"

"I asked Professor Gadd to hold onto it during my vacation," said Luigi. "After our first conversation following my escape, I explored the basement and came upon a parking lot. And there it was, under the hood of an old car. Well—Polterpup kinda found it first." He laughed. "The Professor must be nearby, so I'm gonna see if I can find him. I could use his eccentricity right about now. Okeydokey—I'll call you when the Professor and I meet up."

"I'd like that," said Nathan. "Be careful."

They exchanged goodbyes before hanging up.

"Nate," said Elegant. "There's a file which says 'Games'. Could you click on that, please?"

Nathan obliged, and he was taken to a program titled "Darts".

"Nathan—I wouldn't do that if I were you," cautioned Sophie.

But curiosity prevailed, and Nathan launched the program.

"What? I like darts," said Nathan.

He was now viewing the program's home screen, and he clicked "Play Game". As the game loaded, he viewed the game's controls. The player could aim by moving the cursor and fire by left-clicking.

Once the game finished loading, Nathan was nearly sick to his stomach.

The game's setting was some sort of throne room, warmly lit. Nathan's cursor had turned into a purple dart. But instead of a dartboard—the target was a portrait of Mario, silently screaming as he beat his fists against his artistic prison.

Nathan clicked once, and the dart went flying, impaling itself through Mario's right hand with a gruesome, realistic sound effect and blood splatter. He clicked again, sending another dart into Mario's stomach, resulting in more blood splatter. Nathan found himself revolted by this "game" yet compelled by morbid curiosity to play on. Hits to the face, abdomen and center of mass yielded more points than hits to the limbs, and if Nathan landed a hit through the eye, then King Boo would pop out and cackle in approval.

"Nathan! Nathan, stop!" shouted Melanie.

Nathan pressed the "Esc" key, quitting the "game".

Then, he clicked on the next game, titled "Chase".

In this game, Nathan controlled King Boo as he tried to catch Luigi. When he succeeded, he was treated to a "Congratulations" screen, which showed King Boo's shadow hovering over the helpless man in green.

He exited out of that game, too.

His friends were wide-eyed at this point, hands covering their mouths.

Next, Nathan clicked on a third game, which only had "3:D" as its title.

"Nate, I don't think…" Noah began.

"How bad can it be?" asked Nathan as he launched the game.

He got his answer when the screen showed Luigi stretched out on the floor, wrists and ankles bound. Above him was a drop-down menu with all sorts of grisly instruments, including gardening shears and a bench vise.

"Ugh!" cried Elegant. "I—can't look at that, Nathan. Get out of there!"

Nathan didn't have to be asked twice.

"Show me the last one," Melanie said breathily.

"Mel…" said Sophie.

"It's the most recent one," said Melanie, "and it's smaller than the others."

Nathan scrolled down to the most recently installed game and clicked on it.

After he clicked "Play", Nathan was taken to a six-way split screen view, showing Mario, Peach, Red Toad, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad and Luigi in what appeared to be separate hotel rooms.

"What is this—_Five Nights at Freddy's_?" asked Vicky.

"No—I think it's—a voyeur game," said Elegant.

"Ew," shuddered Sophie.

Nathan saw a button below Mario's room light up and clicked on it. In seconds, Boos pounced on Mario, and his part of the screen went black.

"Oh, my God!" cried Nathan. "I'm done with this!"

"You guys, I really think we need to report Mario and company missing," said Melanie. "The police will know just what to do."

Nathan started to say something, but he was cut off by a familiar jingle and another video call notification.

"Who's that?" asked Jacqui.

"Let's find out," said Nathan, clicking "Accept".

He was greeted with the image of an elderly man with a single tuft of white hair on his head.

"Professor!" exclaimed Nathan.

"Hello, youngsters!" greeted Professor Elvin Gadd.

"Thank God you're here!" said Nathan. "Listen—something happened with Luigi, and…"

"Fear not," said Gadd. "He's here in my lab. Luigi, my boy—come quick. It's your friends."

He then scooted aside as Luigi approached. "Hey," he said.

"You finally found him," said Nathan.

"I did," Luigi laughed in relief.

"What's your next move?" asked Vicky.

"It appears that I'll have to fight my way up every floor of this building," said Luigi, "but don't worry—I won't have to go it alone."

"That's right," said Jacqui. "We're all here for you, Luigi—always."

"Aw—thanks, guys," blushed Luigi, "but I mean that I literally don't have to go through this alone. Professor Gadd has a companion for me."

A blob of green goo in Luigi's likeness stepped into the camera and waved.

"You all remember Gooigi, right?" asked Luigi.

"Yeah—Professor Gadd sent him into the past!" said Vicky. "Hey, Gooigi!"

"He's vulnerable to water and flame, but he'll help me explore perilous and hard-to-reach areas," said Luigi, "and the two of us may face situations where teamwork is required."

"What about Polterpup?" asked Noah.

"He's tagging along, as well," Luigi told him as the aforementioned ghost puppy jumped into his arms. "Emotional support, you know."

"Luigi, we know you can do it," said Elegant. "You've beaten him twice before."

"Yeah," Nathan chimed in. "King Boo has nothing on you!"

Luigi sighed deeply. "He did—exactly what he said he'd do during our last encounter," he said. "He's targeted all of my friends." Raising his head, he declared, "That was a mistake."

"D—n right," said Melanie.

"I don't care what it takes," Luigi said determinedly. "I'm gonna get Mario, Peach and the others out of this Hell-hole."

"That's the spirit, L!" crowed Nathan.

"Professor Gadd will stay with you guys to keep you updated," said Luigi. "Shortly after I head out, I'll call Nate and leave my phone on. Nate, are you still sharing your screen with your friends?"

"Yes," replied Nathan.

"Okay, great. I'll have the video call active, so that you all will know what's happening in real time," said Luigi. "I want you to update as many friends and loved ones as you can, in case the worst should happen."

"That's a good plan," said Noah.

"Luigi mains and Luigi fans need to stick together," added Vicky.

Luigi nodded to them, his face set. "Time to do this," he said.

"Good luck, Luigi!" exclaimed Sophie. "We believe in you!"

Luigi smiled at her. "Thanks," he said before taking his leave.

Gadd moved back into the camera. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be," said Nathan. "Nobody saw this coming."

"But I let him escape again," said Gadd. "Now, all of Luigi's friends are in danger. After six years in a vault, King Boo will be more bloodthirsty than ever."

"God help them," Melanie said softly. "God help them all."

Everyone else murmured in agreement.

Then, a familiar, high-pitched cackle sounded.

"What was that?" asked Vicky.

"That sounded like a Boo," said Gadd.

The cackle sounded again.

"Oh, no…" groaned Nathan.

Someone else had joined their chat.

And that someone was—

—a Boo.

**Please R&R.**


	5. Vicky's Happily Never After

**Chapter contains violence and gore toward the end!**

**October 31, 2019**

**9:47 p.m.**

"Why, hello, there," cackled the Boo. "Having some fun on Halloween night, are we?"

"What do you want?" snapped Nathan.

"We want to have some Halloween fun, too," the Boo replied.

"Get out of this chat right now, you creep!" growled Melanie.

"I believe you're in no position to give orders, _Melanie_," laughed the Boo. "Oh, yes—we know who you are. We know _where_ you are. And we know what you're doing." He cackled again. "We also know that you're _good fans_ of our friend, Luigi."

"Yeah?" challenged Sophie, "and what are you gonna do about it?"

Gadd shushed her. "Don't make them mad!" they cautioned.

"Oh, Professor—when it comes to Luigi, we don't get mad," said the Boo, "we get even. But I can't help but wonder—what would fans of a certain celebrity do to ensure said celebrity's safety? Would they lie? Would they cheat? Would they steal?"

"If you think for one second that we're gonna do anything for you, then you're wrong," Nathan said bravely.

The Boo laughed. "Fear not—we don't want anything from you," he said. "However, we want to spice this video chat up a little bit." Leering into the camera, he added, "Let's play a little game, shall we?"

"What game?" asked Jacqui.

The Boo held up a cell phone, its camera function on, showing the image of the computer screen multiplying to infinity.

"We see everything you're doing," cackled the Boo. "We hear everything you're saying. And who knows? Perhaps our King is lurking around somewhere in this chat. Nathan can attest to that—his laptop is _special_."

"Nathan, what is he talking about?" asked Gadd.

"There was a Smash tournament yesterday," Nathan explained, "and I won the laptop I'm using right now."

"A tournament which _we_ hosted, no less," said the Boo. "Now _why_—would we do that?"

"Oh, God," gasped Nathan. "You rigged the whole thing, didn't you—so that I'd win this laptop."

"Bingo," smirked the Boo, "and your new laptop isn't just any other laptop—it's our King's old laptop. You didn't really think he forgot to erase his data from it, did you?"

"Nate," breathed Vicky, worry in her eyes.

"And now that the cat's out of the bag, allow me to explain the rules of our little game," said the Boo. "They're quite simple, really. If you disconnect from this chat, you die. If you attempt to call the police, you die. And you'll have the immense pleasure of watching Luigi and his friends go before you. If I'm not clear—tell me."

"Yes, yes, we're clear," said Nathan. "We are _so_ clear."

"Good," laughed the Boo. "This is gonna be so much fun."

With one last cackle, the Boo seemingly signed out.

"This is bad," said Nathan. "This is very, very bad."

"Nathan, calm down," said Vicky. "I have an idea. You're not far from Sarasaland's capital, right?"

"Right."

"Okay," said Vicky. "We'll all meet up there and notify Princess Daisy. She'll know what to do."

"Are you sure you want to drag her into this?" asked Noah.

"It's our only chance," said Vicky. "Daisy will do anything to see her beloved safe. She's not scared of these Boos."

_If anyone leaves, it's bye-bye Luigi,_ warned a message on the Skype chat.

Elegant cursed. "He can hear us!"

_He's wandering around the ground floor right now, with that infernal housecleaning device on his back,_ the messenger, presumably the Boo, went on. _He won't hear us coming. We won't make it quick_. _This is no game_.

"I thought you said we were playing a game!" hissed Elegant.

_We are. But we're not joking about this. Follow our rules to the letter, and Luigi and co. will live through this—for a while, at least. 3:D_

"[Bleep] you, man—I'm not doing this," said Noah.

_You really don't have a choice in the matter, do you? Look, it's easy. You can just chat and play your game and pretend that nothing is wrong. Isn't pretending _fun_?_

"Why, yes," said Melanie. "Yes, it is."

_All right. You guys do your thing, and we'll do our thing, and there won't be any problems, okay?_

"Uh—okay," said Vicky.

_See? Easy as pie. 3:D_

"Well—we don't have to just play games," said Melanie. "We can just—sit around and chat about stuff."

"True," said Nathan.

"Okay—what do you all wanna chat about?" asked Elegant. "Smash happenings? I'm all ears for that."

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could give me lessons," said Noah. "Luigi's one of my recent mains. Before then, Peach was my go-to main."

"We should—totally set up an online match," said Nathan. "I'll boot up my Nintendo Switch really quick, and then we can…"

Jacqui's phone buzzed.

"Sorry, guys," she said.

She answered her phone and addressed the caller in Canadian French.

"Jacqui—you forgot to mute your mic," sighed Elegant.

"Okay—when Jacqui's done, we can all boot up our Nintendo Switches and play a few rounds of Online Smash," said Nathan.

"Why not?" asked Vicky.

Hiding his phone under the table, Nathan sent a few quick messages to Luigi. _Be careful. The Boos know you've escaped._

_ Figured. Thx for the warning, _Luigi replied.

"Hold on, guys," said Nathan as an idea struck him.

"Okay," said Elegant.

After disabling the mic and video feed, Nathan switched to the Messenger tab. "Luigi. Talk to me," he said.

"I'm on the Mezzanine now," Luigi reported, sounding a bit out of breath. "A ghostly bellhop has the button to the next floor, so capturing him is my main priority."

Nathan took in Luigi's battered state. "You've fought some ghosts, I see."

Luigi nodded. "At least I got in some practice," he said. "This new Poltergust is _so_ awesome. Do you remember how I can use it to slam my opponents around in Smash? Well, I can do the same to the ghosts in here, slamming them against the floor and into other ghosts. It's a more aggressive approach to ghost-fighting, and I like that."

"I can wait to see you slam King Boo around, I'll tell you that," said Nate. "What about those plungers you can fire?"

"That's called the Suction Shot," said Luigi. "I can use it to heave objects, get rid of obstacles and yank away shields—and I can also use it as a tether, _unlike_ in Smash. And there's another mechanic, Burst, which is mainly for crowd control and providing breathing room."

"Listen, Luigi," said Nathan. "The Boos have got their hooks into me and the others in my chat room, and they're using you as collateral to keep us from signing out or getting help. We'll do what we can, but—I've got to warn you, it won't be much."

Luigi rubbed his temples. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this," he said.

"It's not your fault, and it's not the Professor's fault," said Nathan. "I'm with you till the end of the line, man."

"Thanks, Nathan."

"Could you do me a favor, L?"

"Sure."

"Share your location with me."

"Hold on," said Luigi.

It took only five seconds for Nathan to receive the info. He grabbed a pen and notepad and scrawled down the address.

"Thanks to you, we may have some leverage now," said Nathan.

"Be careful, Nate," Luigi said quietly.

"Ditto," said Nate.

After enabling the mic and video feed, he said, "Guys, check your phones. I'm sending you something very cool."

"What is it?" asked Elegant.

"You'll see," Nathan said as he opened the Messenger app on his phone and sent the location Luigi provided to each of his friends.

"Whoa," breathed Vicky. "Where did you get this?"

"A friend," Nathan said with a wink.

"Okay," said Noah. "Now _this_—is helpful."

"Hey—is that Boo still here?" asked Vicky.

_Yes, I am._

"Good," said Vicky as she shared her own screen with the others. "Watch this."

Nathan watched intently as his fiancée carried out her plan. She had logged onto some sort of Civilian Watch website and was now in the process of submitting a report.

_Vicky, what are you doing?_ The Boo asked.

"You said that we're not allowed to contact the police," Vicky said smartly. "Unfortunately, you were mum on who else we couldn't contact."

_You don't want to do that, Vicky._

"Oh, but I think I do," Vicky shot back.

"Wait—what's she doing?" asked Jacqui, having finished her phone call.

"Finding a loophole," said Elegant.

They fell silent as they watched Vicky's screen. She described the incident she wished to report as a "civil disturbance" at the Last Resort Hotel. Then, she typed in the address Nate gave her and marked the incident as "high priority".

_Don't,_ typed the Boo. _You're making a huge mistake._

"Am I?" asked Vicky as she clicked "Submit".

Leaning close to the screen, she spoke in a low voice. "The Waffle Kingdom Interjurisdictional Corps will be at the Last Resort in fifteen minutes. You have until then to release Mario, Peach and the Toads. I have also alerted my mother, Princess Éclair, of the situation, and she has her forces on standby. She will tell them to stand down when we see on the news that Luigi and his friends have safely returned to the Mushroom Kingdom. Tick-tock, buddy—your fifteen minutes have begun."

"Vicky—I really hope you know what you're doing," said Gadd. "What if this backfires?"

"King Boo should know that if he lays a hand on the Mushroom Kingdom's ruler, then he risks an attack from her allies," said Vicky. "The Waffle Kingdom just so happens to be one of them. I'm positive that the threat of military force will convince him to back off."

"Vicky, let me make a few calls," said Nathan. "Sarasaland is another ally, and a stronger one, too. Peach and Daisy are intimate friends, remember?"

A "default user" icon popped up on the screen.

"Hey—who's that?" asked Elegant.

Another "default user" icon appeared. And then another. And another. And another. Until they practically filled Nathan's screen.

"You guys need to hang up on them, and fast!" warned Gadd.

"I can't," said Nathan. "There's no 'hang-up' button."

"I can't hang up on them, either," said Elegant.

"Or me," said Noah.

"Same here," said Melanie as Sophie chewed her bottom lip.

Suddenly, a pair of glowing violet eyes filled the screen.

Everybody jumped.

"God help us," choked out Nathan. "It's him."

"Well, isn't this touching?" snarled the King of all Boos as he leered at everyone in the chat room. "A bunch of gamers are trying to help their precious Luigi."

"Try? We _will_ help him!" vowed Nathan.

King Boo laughed that horrible, evil laugh. "You have no idea who you're dealing with," he said.

"Do _you_?" Vicky shot back.

"Feisty, aren't we?" asked King Boo. "I like that. So—_you_ must be the one who tried to pull a fast one on us."

"I am. My name is Victoria Rousselle, daughter of Princess Éclair of the Waffle Kingdom. I am to be wed to the Crown Prince of the Easton Kingdom, and his child grows in my belly." Vicky narrowed her eyes at King Boo. "On my word, do as I say—or by God, I'll have every last ally of the Mushroom Kingdom on your tail before you can say 'gullible soup'!"

King Boo had an amused look. "Name your terms, then, Vicky."

"Mario, Peach and the Toads go free!"

"We know, we know. Anything else?"

"You will cease and desist any and all hostilities against Luigi and surrender yourself to the proper authorities," said Vicky. "Once I see that Luigi and company have been safely returned, I'll tell the people I called to turn around. And don't even think about trying to attack my fiancé, either. This entire conversation is being recorded as we speak."

Silence. A slow smile stretched across King Boo's face. And then he laughed again.

"Agreed," he said before hanging up.

The other Boos hung up, as well.

Vicky crossed her arms and smirked in accomplishment. "Nothing like a little hardball to make a King cooperate," she said.

"My word," said Gadd. "I don't know whether to call your actions brave or foolhardy."

"Like I said," said Vicky. "I don't think King Boo would want to be dragged into a war he's likely to lose."

"What do we do now?" asked Jacqui.

"We wait," said Vicky.

"Don't trust him," said Sophie. "It's not like he's just gonna _tell_ you."

"I know," said Vicky. "Peach is one of my contacts, and we're friends on Facebook. She'll send me a text or a photo once she's freed."

"_If_ she's freed," said Elegant. "I don't think King Boo's gonna keep his word."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not just gonna sit here and let him torture Luigi and his friends like this," Vicky said hotly.

"Speaking of which, I'd better check up on him," said Nathan, once again turning his mic and video feed off.

"Luigi? You still there?"

Luigi was sagged against the wall, one arm wrapped around his midsection, breathing heavily.

"Oh, my God. Are you hurt?"

"Not that badly," Luigi replied once he'd regained enough breath. "Got some news for me?"

"Vicky just sent some people to your location," said Nathan.

"Her mom—she's…"

"Princess Éclair? Yes," replied Nathan. "I'm also gonna reach out to Daisy. Hopefully, she'll send backup, as well."

"Daisy…" Luigi sighed. "Will you—tell her I love her?"

"Of course," said Nathan. "Where are you now? Did you defeat that bellhop?"

Luigi nodded and held up an elevator button. "I'm gonna check in with the Professor before I proceed, though."

Nathan nodded. "You look like you just took a beating," he said.

Luigi drew himself up. "How soon will help arrive?"

"Less than fifteen minutes," Nathan replied.

"I don't want Daisy coming out here," said Luigi. "He'll use her against me. I don't care how much she objects—tell her to stay inside her castle with her doors and windows locked."

"Understood," said Nathan.

Switching back to Skype, Nathan announced, "Luigi's on his way back to the Professor's lab. He looks battered, but he's not badly injured."

"I'll get some ice ready for him," said Gadd. "Vicky—they're coming, right?"

"Yeah," said Vicky.

"I still think what you did was risky," said Gadd, "but I admire your courage."

"Thanks, Professor," said Vicky.

There was a faint "ding" on Gadd's side of the feed.

"He's here," said Gadd.

Nathan and the others heard the elderly professor greet Luigi. And then Luigi was seated near the console, unbuttoning his overalls and lifting up his shirt. Oaths sprang up when they saw the hideous bruises spattered all over Luigi's body, the plumber hissing in pain as soon as Gadd placed an ice pack against his abdomen.

"Man, it's only gonna get worse from there," said Elegant. "We'd better pray that Vicky's plan works."

"I'm about to contact Daisy," said Nathan. "I know she'll also send some people to help. The trick will be convincing her not to go with them."

"Yeah, well—good luck with that," said Melanie.

Everyone chuckled.

Unfortunately, the levity was short-lived, as the "default user" icon reappeared on the screen.

"_Now_ what does he want?" huffed Noah.

A YouTube link then appeared on the Skype chat.

"Whatever you do," Nathan said warily, "_do not_ click that link." He had a bad feeling about this.

A new window popped up, showing a video simply titled, "found her".

"Nate—none of us clicked the link," said Sophie, "but it's playing anyway."

The video showed a screenshot of Vicky's Facebook profile before cutting to a closeup of her bio. Everyone watched, hardly daring to breathe, as the cursor hovered over "Lives in Waffle Kingdom" and clicked on it.

"Oh, no…" said Nathan.

Gadd and Luigi were now sitting together on the former's feed, watching the video with great interest.

"What is he doing?" asked Luigi.

"I..I…" Gadd spluttered.

The Google Maps software opened, and the words "Waffle Kingdom Royal Castle" were typed into the search box.

"Vicky—you gotta get out of there right now!" shouted Nathan. "The Boos—they're…"

As he spoke, the video zoomed in on the address to Princess Éclair's castle before cutting to a view of Vicky's room through her window, and then slowly fading to black.

"Oh, my God!" exclaimed Vicky. "This—this is super messed up! That's it, I'm calling the authorities." She grabbed up her phone and dialed. "Congratulations, a—hole."

_We warned you, Vicky._

"No, you just threatened me," snapped Vicky. "All bets are off now." Then, she spoke into the phone. "Hello? Yes, my name is Victoria Rousselle, and someone threatened me and my friends online. I think my castle's about to be attacked. Thank you. Please, hurry."

"Does your castle have a shelter or a basement?" asked Luigi.

"Yeah," said Vicky.

"Then you need to head there right away," said Luigi. "Take your computer with you."

"And arm yourself with anything you can get your hands on," added Noah.

Suddenly, Vicky's room was plunged into darkness, causing her to jump.

"Who's there?!" Vicky demanded, glancing wildly about.

There was the unnerving sound of cackling Boos as a message appeared on the Skype chat.

_Goodbye, Vicky… 3:D_

"Oh, no," gasped Nathan. "No. Vicky—just run!"

Vicky was fast. The Boos were faster.

The pregnant woman only had time to give her friends a look of mortal terror before several Boos grabbed hold of her.

"Vicky! No!" Nathan screamed.

Everyone else began shouting at once as the Boos wrestled Vicky to the floor, pinning her in a spread-eagled position. And then another Boo floated toward her, a wicked-looking knife gleaming in the darkness. Wide-eyed, Vicky struggled desperately against the Boos' grip, but it was no use.

Vicky's friends and fiancé could only watch helplessly as the Boo plunged the knife into her swollen belly—again and again and again. Blood was flying out in ribbons and splattering against the walls, the Boos cackling as Vicky screamed in pain and fear. Nathan was paralyzed as the woman he loved was brutally butchered in front of him; he could barely breathe, and his hands gripped the armrests of his chair. Elegant, Noah, Jacqui, Melanie and Sophie were yelling out in horror as Gadd prayed aloud. Nathan caught a glimpse of the elderly professor attempting to shield Luigi from the grisly sight.

"Oh, God! Vicky! _Vicky!_" Elegant roared as the Boo drove the knife into Vicky's stomach one last time before ripping it out. Viscera spilled everywhere, tears beginning to pour out of Vicky's eyes as she coughed up thick blood. The Boos then reached into what was left of her womb—and that was when nausea hit Nathan hard. He turned away from his laptop and retched.

The screams from the others were enough to tell him exactly what the Boos pulled out.

"Hey, Nate—want a look?" King Boo mockingly asked.

"No…" Nathan hoarsely uttered.

"Too bad you don't have a choice," said King Boo. "Now, _look_! Or would you rather watch another friend die?"

Slowly, Nathan raised his head and stared at his child, the child stolen from him before they even took a breath.

"How long do I have to look?" he whispered.

"As long as it pleases me," replied King Boo.

"You b—d," Luigi uttered. "King Koopa has more honor than you!"

Elegant had his eyes downcast, muttering a prayer. Jacqui had a hand pressed against her mouth. Noah fumed. Melanie and Sophie wept quietly in each other's arms.

"I'll make note of Miss Rousselle's bravery," snickered King Boo.

Nathan clenched his fists. "You S.O.B.," he snarled. "I was about to leave you and your minions to your own devices, but now—you just made this personal. I'm looking forward to watching Luigi kick your [bleep]."

Luigi nodded vigorously, his face tight. "When I catch up with you, you're in for a world of pain!" he vowed.

King Boo just laughed. "I wouldn't count on it," he smirked. With a final leer at his archnemesis, he added, "See you soon, old buddy."

The Master of Illusions then hung up, leaving Nathan and company reeling from what they'd just witnessed.


	6. Jacqui's Grand Masterpiece

**Chapter contains nudity and disturbing content**

**October 31, 2019**

**10:10p.m.**

Nathan sat there, hugging himself, as he grieved for his fiancée and unborn child. Hot tears dripped down his face, his breath shuddering as sob after sob choked him. He could hear his friends trying to comfort him, but he was barely consolable. His future had been violently ripped from him, all in the name of what the Boos considered "good fun". They'd lured Vicky into a false sense of security, making her think that she'd cowed them—and then they'd pounced.

Vicky's feed was still running, and everyone could hear the faint screams of everyone else in the castle as the Boos attacked them. Morbid cackling also filled the air, and upbeat party music began to play, serving to add to the horror. As the minutes passed, the screams quieted, and Nathan could feel his stomach beginning to fall out of his posterior as he put two and two together.

When the last scream faded, there was another round of cackling before Vicky's feed was booted from the chat.

Nathan's head fell into his hands.

_So, how about it?_ The Boo typed into the chat. _Any more of the MK's allies for us to deal with?_

Dead silence.

_We didn't think so. Remember—no more reaching out for help of any kind. Those are the rules._

"Okay, _now_ you tell us," said Jacqui.

_Vicky lost Round 1, but the game isn't over yet. Who's up for Round 2? 3:D_

"God help us," said Elegant.

_He's not listening right now, Elegant. As of right now, our King is your God. His power and mere pleasure is keeping your beloved Luigi alive, after all._

"What has he done to you?" asked Jacqui, "besides suck you all up in a vacuum? If anything, that was _his_ fault!"

"Jacqui…" Gadd spoke in a warning tone.

"Well, it's true!" balked Jacqui. "He should've known the risks when he allied himself with the Koopa King! And he put Luigi on the warpath when he directly antagonized Mario! Did he really think Luigi would let his fears overpower him and abandon his big brother! Well, shame on him—and shame on you!"

_Are you saying he was asking for it, Jacqui? That he _wanted_ to be sealed in a painting for twelve years and then stuck in a vault for five more?_

"Getting sucked into the Poltergust was all on _him_!" Jacqui said hotly. "Luigi's friends had nothing to do with that!"

_So you _are_ saying that our King asked for it._

"Oh, don't even try to make him the victim here!" spat Jacqui. "King Boo put Mario and Luigi through a lot of b.s., okay? Even after eighteen years, they still have nightmares about it, and the stunt you pulled in 2013 certainly didn't help! When are you just gonna let it go, huh?"

"Jacqui, settle down," said Sophie.

"I have no intention of settling down!" snapped Jacqui. "These little monsters stabbed a pregnant woman to death in front of me and are forcing us to play some twisted game! Well, guess what, I'm tired of this game—so let's play a new game. My rules, not yours. Either you let Mario, Peach and the Toads go right now, or I'm gonna march right over to that hotel and knock the trash from your ears. How's _that_ for a game?"

_You wouldn't last five minutes. Besides, this is more fun._

"It sure as [bleep] isn't fun to us," growled Jacqui.

"Jacqui—you're giving them exactly what they want," cautioned Elegant. "Just take a deep breath, and…"

Nathan heard Luigi spit out a curse, yanking him out of his pity party. Wiping his tears with his sleeve, he decided that he was done crying. It wouldn't bring Vicky back, and it certainly wouldn't help Luigi. Muting his mic and disabling his video, he switched to Messenger.

"Luigi…" he said.

Luigi rubbed his nose, and Nathan saw that he was surrounded by foliage.

"Where are you?" asked Nathan.

"Garden Suites," replied Luigi. "A snake just took a bite out of my nose, and I had to use Burst to shake him off. Some gardener ghost named Dr. Potter has the next elevator button. Oh, Nathan—I'm so sorry. I couldn't stop them from…"

"Neither could I," sighed Nathan. "Jacqui's pretty upset. She's railing at the Boos right now."

"She shouldn't engage them," said Luigi. "Is anyone trying to calm her down?"

"Yeah. 'Try' is the keyword here."

"Add her to the Messenger chat," said Luigi. "Maybe I can help."

"Okay—Jacqui? I'm adding you to a conversation on Messenger."

"All right," Jacqui said, a little wearily.

Five seconds later, Jacqui appeared on the Messenger feed.

"Jacqui, can you hear me okay?" asked Luigi.

"Yeah. Can you guys hear me?" asked Jacqui.

"Loud and clear," replied Nathan.

"I can hear you," replied Luigi. "Listen, Jacqui—I know there's a lot going on right now. But yelling at and cursing out the Boos is only gonna make things worse."

"Look what they did to our friend," said Jacqui.

"I just don't want you playing into their hands," said Luigi. "They're counting on you to react—but you can't give in. You have to be strong."

Jacqui nodded. "Are you in some sort of garden?"

"It's a garden-themed floor," Luigi told her. "I have to get the next elevator button from Dr. Potter, a ghostly gardener. He—seems to have a fixation on big, long and thick plants."

"Boy," said Jacqui. "He must've had some shortcomings in his life."

The three chuckled, but it was short-lived.

"Luigi, I get that you're trying to look out for us," said Jacqui, "but I'm a big girl. I know how to swim. And I'm not afraid of any Boos."

"You need to be cautious, though," said Luigi. "The Boos aren't the type who let grudges go—and that goes triple for their King. He told me himself that he was gunning for everyone I've ever loved, and now he's delivered on that promise. Which is why I'm not comfortable with Nathan getting Daisy involved."

"What else can I do?" asked Nathan. "The Boos are monitoring the Skype chat. If we try to reach out to the authorities, then they'll come after us."

"I know someone who lives near the Last Resort," said Jacqui. "In fact, I was just talking to him earlier and telling him about the situation. The Boos said that if _we_ called the police, then we'd suffer the consequences. But perhaps if someone was—made aware—of the situation, and _they_ contacted the authorities, then that would be a different story, right?"

"Maybe," said Luigi.

He swiveled around when he heard a rustling noise.

"Uh-oh. Dr. Potter's up to no good," he told Nathan and Jacqui. "I'd better get a move-on. But remember what I said, Jacqui. If you want to survive, then you need to keep a level head."

"I'll try," said Jacqui.

"Don't try," said Luigi. "Do."

"Okay," said Jacqui before hanging up.

"Hey, Nate—come back," said Elegant.

"Yeah, I'm here," said Nathan.

"We have a plan, and I think it will work," said Elegant. "You might want to connect your phone to a charger for this. We have to use our phones, because…"

"I know."

"I'm going to open up a chat room on Facebook so—we can play a game," said Elegant. "Here's the thing. You have to open an incognito tab on your browser. Otherwise, the game won't function properly. Once I start the game, we'll all mute our computers until the game is finished."

"What kind of game is it?" asked Nathan.

"Nate—just trust us," said Melanie. "It's a really fun game, and we know you'll like it."

"Uh—okay," said Nathan, plugging in his phone and beginning to follow Elegant's instructions.

"All right, did the chat window pop up?" asked Elegant.

"Yes," said Nathan.

"Hold on, guys, I…" Noah said before Nathan disabled the mic and opened the Messenger window.

_Luigi_, he typed, _Elegant's setting up a game for us. It may help you._

_Kinda busy,_ Luigi replied. _Sorry._

Elegant sent a message in the Facebook chat. _Guys?_

_ Here,_ typed Nathan.

Noah, Melanie, Sophie, Gadd and Jacqui typed the same thing.

_Okay,_ typed Elegant. _We're all FB friends with Luigi, right?_

_ Right, _typed Sophie.

_All right. Here's the dealio. We're gonna post about the situation on his timeline, so that his other FB friends will swing into action. Then, we're gonna go to our own home feeds and tag him in a post to get OUR FB friends to help._

_ And we should have them reach out to Luigi as well, via Messenger,_ typed Melanie.

_We should maintain contact with Luigi, his FB friends and our FB friends during this time. We must ask them to keep us updated on whatever actions they choose to take. On the Skype chat, we have to act normal, or else the Boos will suspect something, _typed Elegant.

_OMG Elegant, you're a genius_, typed Nathan.

_The second I end this chat, I want you to go to Luigi's profile and write on his timeline. Chop-chop, everybody!_

The chat window disappeared, and Nathan typed Luigi's name into the search box, accessed his profile, and composed a post briefly explaining what was going on, making sure to include the hotel's address. He posted something similar on his news feed, and then used the Messenger app on his phone to communicate with Luigi.

_My friends and I just posted on your FB timeline. We're getting as much help as we can._

_You think one of them can call the police and go unnoticed by the Boos?_

_ That's our hope._

_Okeydokey. Keep me posted._

_ Same here._

"Is everyone finished playing?" asked Nathan as he turned his mic back on.

"Gimme a minute," said Jacqui, her eyes looking down at her phone. Then, she looked back up. "Okay, I'm done."

"That was a very fun game," said Melanie. "Thank you, Elegant."

"My pleasure, of course," said Elegant.

_Having fun?_ The Boo typed.

"Oh, yeah," Elegant replied. "We're definitely having fun. Aren't we having fun, you guys?"

Everyone nodded.

_I hope you've calmed down, Jacqui._

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm cool," said Jacqui.

_Good. Because I have something to show you._

Jacqui frowned as the "default user" icon popped up.

_I hear you have a bit of an eye for art. Particularly—murals._

"What's that got to do with anything?" asked Jacqui.

_You'll see. 3:D_

The "default user" icon switched to a video of Jacqui strolling downtown.

"Wow, look at that," she was saying, indicating a large mural behind her. "Isn't that beautiful?"

"Oh, yeah," replied the person she was addressing. "It's very artistic."

"That's the thing about murals," said Jacqui in the video. "They really make a city—pop. Transforming otherwise drab parts of town into a small museum of sorts. And you don't even have to pay to get in."

The person she was addressing chuckled.

"As a matter of fact, I know an area near my house that could use a mural," Jacqui went on. "There's an old building that used to be an indoor play-place. I used to go there every Friday when I was a kid." She sighed. "It closed down about ten years ago, and there's a stone wall enclosing it to keep trespassers away. I—think I'll write to the city council about having a mural painted on that wall."

The video then fast-forwarded to Jacqui and the other person seated on a bench, eating hot dogs.

"Do you want to know something?" asked Jacqui.

"What?"

"I'd _love_ to be in a mural," confessed Jacqui. "Immortalized in vibrant colors for all to see."

The video then rewound.

"I'd _love_ to be in a mural."

Rewind.

"I'd _love_ to be in a mural."

Rewind.

"I'd _love_ to be in a mural."

Rewind.

"I'd _love_ to be in a mural."

The feed then reverted to the "default user" icon as Jacqui's lights blinked off and on.

"Jacqui," Gadd said in a low voice. "Drop whatever you're doing and get out of there _fast_."

"You guys…" was all Jacqui said before her feed began to freeze and glitch.

"Jacqui?" called Elegant. "Jacqui, what's going on?!"

Jacqui's feed then disconnected.

Everyone cursed.

"Let me try to call her back," said Nathan, working to re-establish the connection.

When the connection was restored, he was unable to see anything from Jacqui's side—but he could hear screaming and the sounds of a struggle. Then, the Boos cackled before the connection was once again lost.

Everybody was goggle-eyed.

"Wh—what did you do?" asked Elegant. "_What did you do?!_"

_Elegant, chill. We just granted her wish._

Gadd looked nauseous. "Oh, _no_…" he said.

Another video played, showing the camera slowly zooming in on the location Jacqui mentioned in the previous video. There was an old building surrounded by a stone wall. And on the front of that stone wall was a mural—of Jacqui.

"Oh, God," Noah said brokenly.

Her dark hair was fanning her face, her mouth frozen wide open in a scream. She was nude, her body stretched across the entire length of the wall. And her arms were stretched above her, as if they were pinned by an unseen force.

Slowly, the camera panned along the new "mural", offering the unwilling audience a good, long look, before swiveling around to reveal a Boo.

"Now _that_—is a thing of beauty," said the Boo before the feed disconnected.

_Game over, Jacqui. 3:D_

"Mary, mother of God," whispered Gadd, crossing himself.

Elegant was red in the face. "This is—this is f—ed up, you hear me?!" he bellowed. "I'm tired of this!"

"I don't wanna do this anymore!" blubbered Sophie, clutching Melanie like a lifeline.

_Too bad—because we're still playing_, typed the Boo. _It's time for Round 3. And here's where things get interesting…_


	7. Elegant's Explosive Exit

**Trigger warning: Violence and disturbing content**

**October 31, 2019**

**10:46p.m.**

What started out as a Halloween-themed online hangout was now a night of horror. Nathan's life, along with the lives of his remaining friends, rested in the hands of cute but sadistic ghosts whose King had a score to settle. Two people had died in a grisly fashion in front of them, and if they made one slight misstep, then they were likely to follow suit. Their only two lifelines consisted of an elderly professor and inventor whose mind may or may not be going and the hope that the mustachioed man in green would once again triumph over his fears and save the day with the Poltergust G-00.

_Are you ready to keep playing?_ The Boo typed.

"Okay! Yes, we're ready!" said Nathan.

_Let's hope you all can make it to the next round._

"Well, how many rounds are there?" Elegant wanted to know.

_This game will go on for as long as we want. 3:D_

"Aw, man! You know what—you can take this game and shove it!" snapped Elegant.

"Elegant, stop!" cried Sophie.

"You saw what happened to Jacqui and Vicky," added Gadd. "The Boos can be outright terrifying when pushed far enough."

"You think I'm afraid of them?" bellowed Elegant. "Well, I'm not! You hear that, King Boo?! You don't scare me!" He spread his arms wide. "Come on over, man! Come and get some!"

"Elegant, please!" entreated Nathan.

He was distracted by the sounds of hissing and snapping from his Messenger window.

"Excuse me, guys," he said before muting his mic and disabling his video feed.

The screen on his Messenger window showed a lime-green ghost with glowing eyes and a long beard, holding a large, Venus flytrap-like plant which snapped its jaws.

"Luigi? Who in God's name is _that_?" asked Nathan. "What's going on in there?!"

"Nate." Luigi sounded quite stressed and slightly panicked. "I'm smack in the middle of a boss fight, and I can't talk right now! Just…" Nathan saw the camera dodge out of the way of an incoming attack. "Just make sure your friends can see this, okay?"

"Uh—okay. Call me when you beat this guy, whoever he is."

"That's Dr. Potter! The gardener ghost I told you about earlier! That plant of his—wants to _eat_ me!"

Nathan watched as the carnivorous plant attacked again and wound up biting into some sort of fruit on the other side of the room.

"All I can say is—I wish I was _that_ big," said Nathan.

The buzz of a power saw nearly drowned him out.

"I'll leave you to it. Be careful!"

Turning back to his friends on Skype, Nathan took a deep breath. "For the time being, we'll just have to do what the Boos say," he sighed. "Let's just be cool and—play a game or something."

"Okay," said Sophie. "We can do that. Who—who wants to go first?"

Silence. Tension hung in the air.

"I'll go," Sophie finally said, choosing a card. She gave a soft laugh when she looked it over. "If I were a _Game of Thrones_ character, my house sigil would be blank."

"A stingray," said Noah.

"A giant enemy crab," said Nathan.

"A gigantic c—k," said Elegant.

"A beaker," said Gadd.

Sophie laughed. "I'll go with Nathan," she said.

Elegant shrugged. "I thought mine was pretty good, but whatever. Hey, Noah—you wanna go next?"

"Well—okay," said Noah. "I definitely ship blank with blank."

Sophie blew air between her lips. "I definitely ship Iron Man with Captain America."

"I definitely ship Mario with spaghetti," said Nathan.

"I definitely ship Professor Gadd with Magneto," shrugged Elegant.

"What?" balked Gadd.

"Sorry," said Elegant. "First thing that came to my mind."

"Well, then," said Gadd. "I definitely ship Gooigi with Luigi."

"Oh, my God!" Nathan couldn't resist a laugh. "That is _so_…wow!"

"Now _that_ I'd like to see," said Melanie.

Nathan's phone vibrated, and he saw that Gadd had sent him a message. _I need administrative access to your computer._

_ What for?_

_I'm going to copy the nonsense from that folder and save it to my flash drive._

_I trust you._

Nathan clicked on "Settings" and did as Gadd bade him.

_Nate, what is Professor Gadd doing?_ The Boo typed.

"He's helping me play the game," Nathan said calmly.

"When—when the professor's done, I need access to your laptop, too," said Noah. "You know—for the game."

Nathan waited till Gadd was finished before giving administrative control to Noah.

"Uh—my turn," said Elegant. "But before I kill you, Mr. Bond, I must show you blank."

"An embarrassing photo of you getting [bleep]-faced at a bar," said Noah.

"A big, fluffy unicorn," said Sophie.

"The key to world peace," said Gadd.

"Er—my gigantic c—k," offered Melanie.

"What is this, a YouTube Poop?" asked Nathan, rolling his eyes. "Uh—I must show you—a gooey doppelganger of myself."

"Nathan…" Elegant broke in. "He's inviting me to…"

"Okay," said Nathan. "Hold on." He disabled his mic and video before switching to Messenger.

Luigi was now in the hotel's elevator, sweating, bruised and sporting several bite marks, but alive. Gooigi was rubbing his back comfortingly.

"I—take it you defeated Dr. Potter," said Nathan.

"With some help," said Luigi, indicating Gooigi. "He distracted Dr. Potter while I took the chainsaw to that carnivorous plant. It was the only way I could stun him and vacuum him up. Elegant—can you hear me?"

"Yeah."

"Then listen very carefully," said Luigi. "You need to find a place of sanction. King Boo probably knows that you main me in Smash, and that you're among the top players who do so—which means that you're in the most danger. In fact—you all should decide on a place to meet up in case things go from bad to worse. Let me just…"

In less than a minute, Melanie, Sophie, Noah and Gadd were added to Nathan's Messenger chat.

"Guys, mute your computers," said Luigi.

"Done," said Noah. "What's this about?"

"King Boo knows that you're part of my fanbase," said Luigi, "which is no doubt why he targeted you in the first place. You all need to be ready in case he decides to step up his game. Designate a meeting spot and bring enough food, water and first aid to last about two weeks."

"But they said that if we leave…" said Noah.

"They won't have to know that you left," said Luigi. "You'll have to trick them into thinking you haven't. Take some video footage and put it on loop, or gif a photo or _something_. Or better yet—go underground so they'll have more trouble tracking down your laptops."

"Where are you headed?" asked Sophie. "To the next floor or back to the lab?"

"Back to the lab. I need some time to calm down from the fight," said Luigi.

"Luigi—I have a pen pal in the Beanbean Kingdom," said Melanie. "She knows your old friend Prince Peasley. I'm gonna try to reach out to her, so she can tell him, so maybe he can send some help."

"Thank you, Melanie," said Luigi.

"As a matter of fact, I'm gonna head over right now and tell her in person," said Melanie. "I'm just a short train ride away."

"The train depot is still open?" asked Luigi.

"The last train leaves at three in the morning," Melanie told him. "Guys—if the Boos notice, then tell them that I'm using the restroom."

She cupped Sophie's face in her hands. "I want to be brave," she said.

"Melanie—you're the bravest woman I know," said Sophie.

"I don't know what'll happen tonight," said Melanie. "That's my biggest fear."

"Hey," Sophie told her. "We'll get through it together, okay?"

"Okay," said Melanie.

The two kissed, and then Melanie grabbed her jacket and purse before slipping out the door.

"Hey," said Elegant. "If King Boo comes my way, then I'm ready for him." He held up a replica of the Poltergust G-00.

"Did you make that yourself?" asked Nathan.

"It took about a week," replied Elegant, "but it was worth it."

"Luigi's right," said Noah. "We need to brainstorm a rendezvous area. The citizens of San Francisco met up at a fountain after that quake in 1906."

"I know just the place," said Elegant. "There's a 24-hour diner not far from my place where Smash tournaments are frequently held. We'll meet up at a private booth and plan our next move."

"I can make a few phone calls," offered Gadd, "and arrange for you to stay at a posh hotel for a few weeks. Do you prefer Hyatt or Best Western?"

"Either is fine," said Nathan. "How long will that take?"

"Five minutes, tops," replied Gadd. "In the meantime, I'd recommend that you start gathering your things. I'll let you know when everything's all set."

"Could you send someone to pick us up?" asked Elegant.

"I will," said Gadd. "She's a trustworthy associate of mine. Her name's Rebecca. She's tall with straight, black hair and gray eyes."

"Yeah—like she's the only woman around here with straight, black hair and gray eyes," said Noah.

"After I get some hotel accommodations for you, I'll tell you what she'll be wearing, and I'll try to be as specific as possible," said Gadd.

"Thank you, Professor," said Sophie.

"You guys are gonna meet up at a public place," said Luigi. "That's smart. Remember to leave the call active for me, all right? We need to stay in touch for as long as possible. Professor, I'm on my way back."

"Okay, Luigi. I'll have some snacks ready," said Gadd.

Nathan turned back to his laptop just as the Boo sent a chilling message.

_Nice try, guys. Let me turn those mics back on for you. 3:D_

"…and make sure you have some cash on hand," Luigi was saying. "They might track you down using your credit cards."

"Guys—guys!" Nathan said urgently. "The Boos switched our mics on. They can hear us!"

Gadd's face went pale. "Did they hear everything?"

"I don't know! I don't…"

The Boo's video feed then came to life, displaying Elegant's YouTube channel.

"Oh, poke around all you want, you a—holes!" roared Elegant. "I have a VPN! You'll never find me!"

"For God's sake, Elegant!" Gadd exclaimed. "Don't take the bait!"

The Boo's feed began fast-forwarding through all of Elegant's videos before stopping at an interview.

"I am so sick and tired of my man in green being so underappreciated," Elegant was telling the interviewer.

The video then rewound and replayed the phrase "sick and tired" a few times.

"Wha—what are you doing?" asked Elegant.

The Boo's feed then switched to another video where Elegant was visiting the Mushroom Kingdom.

"There's something about these talking toadstools which fills my heart with joy," he was saying, but then the video rewound and replayed the phrase "these talking toadstools" several times.

In a third video, Elegant was talking about a festival. "I'm gonna pack up my stuff, head on over to Mushroom Park and have some fun." Then, the phrase "head on over to Mushroom Park and have some fun" was repeated.

Noah snatched at his hair. Luigi had rejoined Gadd in the lab, the two of them watching the action as the latter tended to the former's recent wounds.

The Boo then switched to a fourth video, where Elegant was solemnly discoursing over a shocking act of violence at a Smash tournament.

"I hope it doesn't get to the point that we have to be checked for any weapons and firearms before entering the venue."

After the phrase "weapons and firearms" was replayed thrice, the Boo's feed then cut to a keypad, where someone dialed 9-1-1 and pressed "Call".

Nathan had broken out in a cold sweat at that point.

"Please state the nature of your emergency," said the 9-1-1 operator.

Clips from Elegant's videos were spliced together so that he appeared to be saying, "I am sick and tired of these talking toadstools."

"Sir, is this a real emergency?" asked the operator as Elegant's eyes widened.

"I'm gonna pack up my weapons and firearms, head on over to Mushroom Park and have some fun."

"Sir, can you tell me your name?"

The Boo played a clip from another of Elegant's interviews. "My friends call me Elegant."

And then the feed disappeared.

Elegant was gasping. "Wh—wha…?"

"They—they made that call ten minutes ago," said Gadd. "You need to…"

Elegant jumped out of his seat at the pounding on his door.

"Police!" barked a voice outside. "We have a search warrant!"

"Oh, my God," said Elegant. "Oh, my God…"

"Elegant, don't make any sudden moves," said Nathan. "They think you're a dangerous psycho who wants to mow down innocent Toads."

"But that's not true!" Elegant's voice had risen in pitch.

"It'll be hard to convince them," Gadd gravely intoned.

"Just—get on the ground, Elegant!" said Luigi. "Get on the ground and follow their instructions!"

As the police ordered Elegant to open the door, the Boo's feed came back on, showing the Smash player's desktop. The volume on his speakers was turned up to its highest setting, and then a sound effect clip was downloaded.

The feed then zoomed in on a cursor flipping the bird as it hovered over the play button. It was then that Nathan saw that the sound effect clip was of a gun's safety being removed.

"Elegant! Elegant! Stay on the ground!" ordered Nathan.

Sophie, Noah, Gadd and Luigi all began shouting desperately at Elegant as he crept toward his front door. All the while, the middle-finger cursor was circling the play button. Elegant, in full-blown panic mode, paid no heed to his pals, nor was he aware of what was going on with his computer. He was practically sobbing as he pleaded his innocence to the police officers outside, who were now threatening to break down his door.

"Please, don't hurt me! I'm unarmed! I'm unarmed!" he screamed.

"Elegant, _wait_!" everybody screamed out.

Just as Elegant reached the door, the sound effect played, sealing the young man's fate.

"He's got a gun!" The responding officers opened fire, the hail of bullets sending Elegant slamming backwards as his blood splashed against the camera lens. A horrible gurgling sound escaped him as he slowly slumped to the ground, leaving behind a wide smear of the crimson egret.

Sophie let out a scream. Luigi cursed. Nathan and Noah sat there in shock. Gadd was shaking.

As the police entered Elegant's residence, his feed disconnected from the chat.

_Elegant—game over. 3:D_

"They're—they're gonna get all of us," gasped Nathan. "I—we gotta…"

"I just got a text from Mel," said Sophie as she recovered her composure. "She's on the train to the Beanbean Kingdom now. And she and her friend are gonna notify Prince Peasley and bring help. Maybe give us a place to stay until this is all sorted out."

"There's no time," said Luigi. "I gotta head back out there!"

"Luigi…!" Gadd started to say.

But the man in green had already darted out of the lab and into the elevator.

"King Boo's gone insane," said Sophie. "He wants Luigi, his friends—and everyone even minutely associated with him."

_Smart girl_, typed the Boo. _But let's not dwell on such things, shall we? It's time for the lightning round. 3:D_

"What do you m…?"

Sophie had hardly finished her question when the lights in her room flickered off…

**Please R&R.**


	8. Sophie's Choice

**Content warning for blood and character deaths**

**October 31, 2019**

**11:10 p.m.**

_We have something special for you, SOPHIE. 3:D_

Sophie, Nathan, Noah and Gadd watched as the Boo's feed came back on, playing a video of Melanie and Sophie together.

"So—are we gonna tell them tonight?" asked Melanie.

"Might as well," replied Sophie. "They'll find out sooner or later."

They fell onto their sofa and began making out. Both ladies had their shirts and bras off in an instant, and Melanie had just started working on Sophie's jeans when she paused, a contemplative expression on her face.

"What's on your mind?" asked Sophie.

"Before we get too ahead of ourselves," said Melanie, "what type of ceremony should we have?"

"Something small," replied Sophie. "This isn't a soap opera."

"Like—City Hall kind of small?"

"City Hall—now that's a thought," said Sophie. "I'm from New Donk City, so it'll be easy for us to obtain a marriage license and tie the knot about a week later. But—we'll need witnesses, though."

"Emily and Janelle can witness for us."

"That's the thing. Emily has a recital coming up, and I want her to focus on that."

"Then—we'll have the ceremony after the recital," smiled Melanie, "followed by a reception. And the mayor, Pauline, can perform for us!"

"Mel—you read my mind!" laughed Sophie.

The video skipped ahead to a later time period, with the engaged pair tangled together on the sofa, post-coitus and gasping for breath.

"Whoa—that was epic," said Sophie. "Where did you learn that?"

"It just—came to me," chuckled Melanie. "We'd—better get ready for tonight."

Sophie's phone chimed, and she reached over and checked it.

"It's from Emily," she said. "She and Janelle are about to begin their trick-or-treating."

"I won't mind if you decide to go with them," Melanie said softly.

"I accompanied them last year," Sophie told her, "and besides, things have changed between us. Now that we're engaged, we need to spend more time together."

"Aw—Sophie," cooed Melanie. "That's a sweet way to put it. But—I just don't want you to think you have to choose between me and your niece. That—would be wrong."

The video rewound.

"I just don't want you to think you have to choose…"

Rewind.

"I just don't want you to think you have to choose…"

Rewind.

"I just don't want you to think you have to choose…"

The feed then switched to a security image of a train depot as a train arrived, the doors opening and the passengers disembarking. Among those passengers was a familiar brunette woman.

"Mel…" Sophie murmured.

Another feed came on, showing a woman with Sophie's blond hair—or at least a hair color similar to Sophie's—hand in hand with a young girl. Both were dressed in costumes, and the girl had a jack-o-lantern in her hand.

Sophie pressed her hand to her mouth, her shoulders quivering.

"Who…?" Gadd started.

"That's—my sister and niece." Sophie's voice was barely a whisper.

That was when the Boo typed a simple, cryptic command. _CHOOSE 3:D_

A timer began to count down from 30 as the color drained from Sophie's face.

"You're asking me to—oh, God!" Sophie burst into sobs. "What have they ever done to you?!"

_CHOOSE 3:D_

"No," said Nathan. "No—no—no! I'll do anything! Stop this right now! I'll do anyth…"

The Boo disabled his video feed, but he could still hear Sophie's voice, sobbing and pleading with the Boos.

"No—I can't—I can't—please…"

As the timer reached zero, Nathan heard Sophie's breathing steady.

"No," she said, her voice firm, quiet and defiant. "No. I _won't_."

Nathan's video feed was enabled—just in time for him to see a group of Boos throw Janelle and Emily into the path of an oncoming truck!

"NO!" Sophie screamed. "Oh, God—no!" Sobs wracked her frame. "I'm sorry…"

"Oh, no…" breathed Noah. "Melanie…"

The other feed showed Melanie riding the escalator down to the depot's street level. Sophie's reddened eyes widened when she heard the Boos cackling.

"Melanie—watch out!" she screamed.

Unfortunately, Melanie couldn't hear Sophie, of course. Her fiancée could only watch helplessly as another group of Boos flew inside the escalator, causing it to malfunction. Melanie's hands flung up, and her mouth opened in a silent scream as she was sucked into the gears. Thick blood spurted every which way, and then Melanie was gone, the escalator painted with her crimson egret. And Nathan stomach lurched as he thought he could see bits of shredded flesh stuck to the escalator's gears.

"Melanie—oh dear God, no!" Sophie cried in anguish. "Melanie!"

Nathan bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Sophie," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."

_The hardest choices require the strongest wills,_ typed the Boo._ You have our respect, Sophie. Soon, our King will have everyone under his control. We hope they remember you._

The lights in Sophie's room came back on, showing at least six Boos hovering behind her. Sophie was oblivious, seated before her computer, her eyes dead.

"Sophie," said Gadd. "Sophie, behind you!"

_Au revoir, Sophie._ _3:D_

Sophie whirled just as the Boos pounced, dragging her away. Nathan, Noah and Gadd had time to hear her scream before her feed cut off.

"Sophie! Hey, Sophie! _Sophie!_" shouted Nathan.

The Boo then banned Sophie from the chat.

_Sophie—game over. 3:D_

Nathan cursed.

"What's going on now?" asked Luigi.

"The Boos—they got Melanie and Sophie," said Nathan. "They tried to make Sophie choose between Melanie and her sister and niece, but she wouldn't, so they…"

"_Dio_," uttered Luigi. "This is more serious than I thought. King Boo is taking no prisoners now. Nate—you and Noah need to get to your designated meeting spot with all haste."

"How's your rescue endeavor progressing?"

"I'm on a medieval-themed floor. You won't believe how many death traps I've had to avoid in here. A ghostly king has the next button, so I'm gonna duel him for it."

"A duel, huh? Well, in that case, I pray for your victory," said Nathan.

Then, he turned back to the computer. "Listen to me," he said. "Wherever you are in this chat, listen to me. You have no idea who you're dealing with, but you'll soon find out! There is _no_ version of this where you come out on top! Because if we can't protect Luigi and his friends, then you can be d—n sure we'll avenge them!"

_Oh, we'll see. 3:D_

"If you stop this whole game and let them leave peacefully, then that will be the end of it," Gadd put in. "We won't look for you, and we won't pursue you. But if you don't—then we _will_ look for you. We _will_ find you. And I will personally stick you back in that Boo Vault where you belong."

_Good luck. 3:D_

Nathan's Messenger feed crackled, and the young man saw Luigi's image beginning to glitch.

"Luigi?" he asked.

All he got in response was distant evil laughter.

"Is that King Boo?"

"No," panted Luigi. "That's the ghostly king I was talking about. King MacFrights."

"King MacFrights," repeated Nathan. "He sounds familiar…"

"Look, whatever you're calling about—I'm sure it can wait," Luigi said, a bit sharply.

"I just want you to know that I'm starting to lose your signal," said Nathan. "I'm getting glitching and freezing on my side."

There were galloping hooves in the background. Nathan saw Luigi dart to one side.

"This guy has a lance, and he's _charging at me on horseback_," said Luigi. "I need to be ready to stun him, so I can fire a Suction Shot at his armor and slam him around."

"Sounds like my kind of duel," said Nathan. "Okay—I won't keep you any longer."

The feed continued to glitch and freeze periodically as Luigi squared off against King MacFrights.

"Guys," said Nathan. "Luigi's about to get the next elevator button. He's currently fighting this king named MacFrights, the boss of the medieval floor. The outlook appears to be in his favor."

Noah and Gadd sighed in relief.

"You guys aren't safe anymore," said Gadd. "The Boos won't stop until anything and anyone associated with Luigi is done away with."

"Oh, my God," breathed Nathan. "The embassy—I gotta head over there!"

"Embassy?" repeated Noah.

"Each of Sarasaland's kingdoms has an embassy which is open 24 hours a day," explained Nathan. "The Easton Kingdom's embassy is a short bike ride away from my place."

_Nate, if you leave, you lose the game, remember?_

"Well, we're all dead, anyway," snapped Nathan, "so I might as well go down swinging!"

"What are you gonna do at the embassy?" asked Gadd.

"You said that everyone Luigi knows is in danger, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there's one such person that I need to warn," said Nathan.

Gadd understood instantly. "Go. Hurry," he said. "Leave your computer and phone on. Noah and I need to finish copying the files."

Nathan fastened his helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards before grabbing his bike and heading out.

Just as he mounted the bike, however, his Messenger feed cut to black.

_Connection lost._

**Please R&R.**


	9. Noah's Cyber Disaster

**TW: Disturbing content**

**October 31, 2019**

**11:31 p.m.**

Nathan pedaled briskly down the road as if his life depended on it. And perhaps it did—along with Noah's life, Gadd's life and the lives of Luigi and his imperiled friends. The sooner he could reach the embassy, the sooner he could get help.

His phone rang, and he answered it using his hands-free device. "Hello?"

"Nate? Are you almost there?" asked Noah.

"I think so. Listen—Luigi's signal cut off just as I was leaving. I don't know if he's okay, I don't…"

"I'll have the Professor reach out to him."

"He could still be fighting this MacFrights person," cautioned Nathan.

"Okay—wait until you get to the embassy and try to get ahold of him again." Noah took a deep breath. "The Boos may already know you're en route. Stay alert."

"Will do," said Nathan before hanging up.

Three minutes later, he arrived at the embassy, parked his bike and went straightaway to the woman at the front desk.

"Hi," said Nathan. "I—I need help."

The woman's brow wrinkled in concern. "What's wrong?"

"My name is Nathaniel Turner, and I'm the Crown Prince of the Easton Kingdom."

"May I see your ID, please?"

Nathan obliged before continuing his story. "I have reason to believe that Princess Daisy is in imminent danger. Someone very dangerous has a vendetta against her boyfriend, and he may target her to get to him."

"Have you contacted the police?"

"He—he said that if I or if any of my friends called the police, then we'd all die," said Nathan. "We were video-chatting earlier tonight, and somehow—he found his way in and started attacking us. He killed my fiancée and unborn child and had four of my pals killed because we were associated with the person he hates. I won a new laptop yesterday, and now I think that it used to belong to him. I just—I didn't know where else to go."

"We'll send some people over to check on Princess Daisy," said the woman. "And her boyfriend—where is he located?"

"Uh—at this place called the Last Resort. It's a hotel," Nathan explained before giving the address to the woman. "Also, could you please check on Noah, as well?"

"What's his address?"

Nathan told her. "Listen—I need to use one of your computers here."

"Sure. Right this way." The woman led Nathan to the computer area.

Nathan sat at the first computer he saw and signed in with his credentials. The woman approached him with a bottle of soda and a sandwich. "On the house," she said.

Nathan accepted the food and drink with a nod of thanks.

"Look—the person attacking us, along with Princess Daisy's boyfriend, is very powerful," Nathan said to her. "He's—a King, you see, and he could have his minions everywhere. Because of that, I'd like to ask that you leave my name out of this."

"Don't worry," the woman told him. "Your surviving friends—are they still at home?"

"Yeah," said Nathan, logging into his Skype and Messenger account.

"Are they safe?"

"Uh-huh."

"All of them?"

"Uh-huh—they're good," replied Nathan as he started a video call with Noah and Gadd.

"Even the scientist?"

Nathan jerked his head up.

"Scientist? I never mentioned a—do you mean Professor Gadd?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," said the woman, an unsettling smile began forming on her face.

"Nathan?" He swung around as Noah appeared on the Skype feed, followed by Gadd seconds later. "You're at the embassy, right?"

The woman chuckled softly. "There you are," she said. "Nice to know that you're still with us."

"Who's that?" asked Noah. "An embassy employee?"

Nathan's stomach flopped over. "You guys…"

"Don't hang up," the woman said ominously.

"What's happening?" asked Gadd.

"Shh!" hissed Nathan.

The woman leaned forward, her hair tumbling over Nathan's shoulder as she gazed at Noah and Gadd. "I said—don't—hang—up."

"Nathan—who…?" Gadd wanted to know.

Nathan cursed and pounded the desk. "It's them! It's those f—ing a—holes!"

The woman vanished—and in her place were two Boos.

Glowing pink gates slammed down over the doors and windows, trapping Nathan inside. The two Boos cackled as they circled around the young man.

"So—we meet again, Nathan," said one of the Boos.

Nathan stared. "BooGene? Is that you?"

"In the flesh," laughed BooGene, "and here is my afterlife partner, Booverly."

The other Boo waved hello to Nathan.

"We knew you'd stop by here," said Booverly, "so we prepared a special surprise."

"But we do owe you thanks," said BooGene. "The final phase of our King's plan has been set into motion."

Nathan stopped breathing at the dawning realization. "You wanted me to come here all along," he said.

"Bingo," laughed BooGene. "We really didn't know how creative you and the others would be in trying to help Luigi—but it worked out for the best. One thing we _did_ know is that you'd attempt to get Daisy in on the action—and it appears you've succeeded—just not in the way you hoped!" BooGene cackled.

Nathan groaned. "I've doomed us all," he gasped.

"What are you talking about?" asked Gadd.

"They set us up," said Nathan. "We did exactly what they wanted us to do. And now, I've put Daisy in danger! If Luigi finds out—I'm such an idiot!"

"No reason to fret, Nate," said BooGene. "Our King will be forever grateful for your assistance."

Nathan's phone vibrated.

"Looks like your connection with Luigi has been restored," said Booverly. "Tell him we're here, and you'll have his blood on your hands."

Booverly and BooGene cackled before flying off.

Nathan pulled out his phone. "H—hi, Luigi," he said.

Luigi sat in what looked like an arena, Polterpup in his lap, Gooigi seated beside him. Sweat rolled down his face, and his chest heaved. More bruises were visible on his face, but still nothing dangerous. "Hi, Nate," he said. "You're not at home anymore, are you?"

"No. I'm in…" Nathan cleared his throat. "I'm at the embassy."

"What are you doing there?"

"I thought I could get help," Nathan said honestly.

"Nate—I asked you not to get Daisy involved."

"I didn't!" Nathan said sharply. "I talked to someone at the desk, and they said help is on the way."

"You shouldn't have done that, Nate." Luigi adjusted his cap as he spoke.

"Uh—how did your fight with King MacFrights go?" asked Nathan.

"As well as you'd expect," replied Luigi. "He kept charging around the arena, armor-clad and on horseback. When he charged directly at me, I had to time things so that I could stun him, fire a plunger at his armor and then slam him around. Luckily, his lance was blunt-tipped, so it didn't hurt me badly. If I missed, then he'd hook the lance under one of my overall straps and fling me this way and that. _Then_, after I destroyed his armor, he fought me with a sword and shield. The sword was blunt-tipped, too, thank God. The Suction Shot wouldn't work on the shield, because it wasn't a smooth surface, so I had to look for an opening before I could stun him and end the fight. It—wasn't as easy as it sounds."

"Look—all that matters is that you beat him, and you have the next button," said Nathan.

To Gadd and Noah, he said, "He made it."

Gadd exhaled. "Tell him to come back to the lab."

When Nathan did so, Luigi objected.

"No way. No f—ing way," he said.

"Luigi, he needs to take a look at you," said Nathan.

"I'm fine, really," said Luigi. "Just bruised up."

"I don't like the looks of those bruises, though," said Nathan. "Just—head over to the lab as a precaution, all right?"

Luigi huffed. "Fine," he said.

"Okay, Professor—he's on his way," said Nathan.

"Great," said Gadd, wrapping some ice cubes in a cloth to make a cold compress.

"What did the people at the embassy say?" asked Luigi.

"They said—they said that they'll send people to do welfare checks on Daisy and Noah," said Nathan.

"Are they coming to the Last Resort?"

"Yeah. They're about—thirty minutes away."

"Thirty minutes—they need to be quicker than that," said Luigi. "Is—is there something you're not telling me, Nathan?"

"Just trust me on this, Luigi," said Nathan, remembering Booverly's threat. "Help is coming."

A beat.

"I don't believe you," Luigi said finally.

Nathan cursed. He should've known that he couldn't fool Luigi.

"Are you in trouble? Did the Boos track you down?"

"I—can't…" Nathan said quietly as BooGene and Booverly cackled.

"Can't—what?"

"…tell you," said Nathan.

"C'mon, Nate! Don't do this to us—don't do this to us!" Luigi was now in the elevator. "Please, don't do this to us!"

"Just calm down, okay?" beseeched Nathan. "Everybody, just calm down. Luigi—it's okay. I can't tell you."

BooGene spoke into Nathan's ear. "Noah suddenly seems to like his phone," he hissed. "Let's fix that, shall we?"

"Hey, Noah?" Nathan spoke up.

"Uh—sorry," said Noah. "That was—a friend, checking up on me."

"He's a terrible liar," murmured BooGene. "Anyone picks up a phone again—and they lose the game."

"Who's that?" Luigi asked sharply.

"Nobody," Nathan quickly replied.

But Luigi narrowed his eyes. "That's a Boo, isn't it? They've captured you, haven't they?"

"No—everything's fine," said Nathan.

"Stop lying to me, Nate!" Luigi exclaimed as he stepped out of the elevator and headed toward Gadd's lab. "How can we help each other if you don't tell me the truth?"

"Luigi…"

"Don't 'Luigi' me! Either you be honest with me, or I hang up!"

"No, don't hang up!" Noah cried, having joined in the Messenger chat. "He's trying to protect you!"

"What do you mean?"

"The whole thing was a trick!" Noah said urgently.

"Noah, don't do this," pleaded Nathan.

Noah ignored him. "The Boos lured Nathan into the embassy, and now they have him trapped!" he went on. "The woman manning the front desk was an illusion! I don't even know if he's actually in the embassy anymore! That was what I was doing on the phone—I was trying to send you a warning text! The Boos who captured Nathan—they're using your life as collateral—again!"

"I knew it," said Luigi. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it."

Nathan saw Gadd turn his head and knew that Luigi had arrived in the lab.

"Hold on a sec," said Luigi as he emptied the Poltergust and then plunked into the seat Gadd offered. He closed his eyes as the professor began applying the cold compress to his bruises.

"If I told you—then they'd kill you," Nathan said in a small voice.

"They didn't say anything about _me_ trying to warn you," said Noah.

"Oh, Noah," said BooGene. "You think you're so slick. But when we warned Nate—you should've known that we were warning you and the professor by extension."

"If you threaten either of them again…" warned Luigi.

"Threaten them?" cackled BooGene. "As in—we're gonna hunt down every last Luigi main and Luigi fan on this planet and make them regret ever associating with you? We could be pinpointing them right now—and you're stuck in a haunted hotel trying to save your beloved friends. Get your priorities straight, Luigi, because you can't save them all."

"It won't stop me from trying," Luigi said evenly.

"Luigi—we'll be fine," Nathan assured him. "Just—focus on Mario and the others, okay?"

Luigi nodded.

"Everything's gonna be all right," Nathan went on.

BooGene and Booverly cackled.

"Don't count on it," said Booverly. "You don't stand a chance against our King!"

"I beat him twice before," snapped Luigi. "I can certainly beat him again, and I'll vacuum up every ghost and Boo who gets in my way. No matter what you do, no matter how badly you hurt me—I won't stop fighting until Mario, Peach and the Toads are out of your King's clutches. You think you put people through Hell? It will rain back down on you."

"Well, in that case," snickered BooGene, "let it rain."

Luigi and the two Boos glared at each other for several seconds—and then the lights in Noah's place went out.

"Noah—just run," Gadd commanded. "Run for your life!"

Someone knocked on Noah's door. Sweating, Noah brandished a baseball bat.

"Who's there?" he barked.

He was answered by a chorus of cackles.

Noah swung the bat a few times. "Don't you try anything! I'm armed!"

More cackling.

BooGene licked his tongue out at Noah's image. "Ah, Noah—you think you're so tough," he said. "But haven't you forgotten? Those kind of weapons have no effect on us."

"No!" shouted Nathan. "You stay away from him!"

"Or what? You'll have your old man sic his armies on us?" taunted BooGene. "You know something? We're getting a little tired of you mortals giving us orders."

"And _we're_ getting a little tired of you harassing us because we hang out with a man whose sole crime was to defend his brother!" Nathan shot back.

"The very brother who repeatedly trespassed on our dominion," said Booverly.

"You allied with a routine princess-snatcher!" charged Noah.

"And he was just passing through," added Luigi. "It wasn't like he was physically attacking you or anything!"

"We didn't appreciate a complete stranger strutting through our territory like he belonged there," sniffed BooGene.

"Would you stop trying to justify your King's actions for one god—m second?" snapped Luigi. "The fact of the matter is—you formed a political and military alliance with a reptile who repeatedly harasses a peaceful realm and makes unwanted advances towards its ruler, a reptile who happens to be _our_ enemy! That's the downside of allying with someone—you have to deal with their adversaries, as well! What you did to my bro certainly didn't help your case!"

"He's right," said Nathan. "Your decision to trap, torment, torture and terrorize Mario made things personal as far as Luigi's concerned. Because no one messes with his bro!"

"Even if the perpetrator scares him half to death!" crowed Noah. "So, don't even think about discouraging him from trying to save his loved ones!"

"Why—we're _absolutely_ counting on him to face our King once more," giggled Booverly.

"How does the saying go?" asked BooGene. "The third time's the charm!"

The two of them cackled as Nathan's skin crawled.

"You need to be careful, Luigi," he said softly. "King Boo wants to end things once and for all."

"Well, so do I," Luigi said determinedly.

BooGene leered at Noah. "Dealing with Luigi, however, will have to wait," he said. "We have more _pressing_ matters to deal with."

Noah held his bat out in front of him. "What do you want from me?" he asked.

"We're curious, Noah," said Booverly. "How much do you like your computer?"

"What's that to you?" Noah demanded.

"Just asking—there's no need to be mean," said Booverly.

"You must like your computer very much," said BooGene.

"Well—yeah," Noah said hesitantly.

"Noah…" breathed Luigi.

BooGene grinned, ignoring the man in green. "Then we know just what to do with you," he said.

Noah jerked his head around as he heard more cackling.

"No! Don't even think about it!" he cried. "I have friends nearby! Very powerful friends!"

"So what?" asked Booverly.

"Noah—find somewhere to hide!" shouted Luigi. "Quickly!"

"I'm serious! You lay a hand on me, and…" Noah's feed froze before he could finish the sentence.

"Oh, my God. Noah. _Noah?!_" shouted Nathan.

The feed came back to life, showing Noah screaming and struggling as the Boos cackled at his distress.

"What are you doing with him?!" Luigi demanded as he and Gadd clutched at each other.

"You'll see," smirked BooGene.

"Help!" Noah screamed. "Somebody, help!"

And then his feed disconnected.

"Criminy!" shouted Gadd. "This is downright macabre!"

"They're not stopping," said Luigi, getting up from his seat and adjusting the Poltergust. "I'm going back in there, and I'm not returning to this lab until I deal with them once and for all. You just _try_ and stop me."

And then he marched out of the room and Gadd futilely reached out to him.

Gadd cursed softly. "I can't talk him out of this, can I?" he asked.

Nathan shook his head.

A new screen—presumably a Boo's or perhaps King Boo's himself, joined the Skype conversation, showing the default user icon before cutting to a shot of Noah's room.

Nathan's breath hitched. "Noah? Are you all right?" he asked.

Slowly, the camera zoomed in on Noah's computer.

"Hey, Noah?" Gadd joined in. "What in Heaven's name happened?"

The Boo's feed now had a clear shot of Noah's computer screen. And that's when Nathan and Gadd saw—

Noah was trapped inside his own computer screen, frantically banging on the it, his eyes wild, his face bruised. Just like Mario back in 2001, except that he was in a portrait. Not that the difference really mattered.

"Get me outta here!" screamed Noah, his voice muffled.

BooGene cackled. "Comfortable?" he asked.

"You little b—ds, you'd better let me out right now!" hollered Noah.

"I'll take that as a yes," sneered BooGene.

Dialogue boxes began popping up around Noah, which released scores of Boo icons.

"We don't want you to be alone in there, so…" Booverly sang out.

"No—please—no…" whimpered Noah, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

The Boo icons swarmed around Noah as he did his best to swat them away. Eventually, they grabbed his hands and pinned them behind his back.

"Nathan! Professor! Luigi! HELP ME! PLEASE!" roared Noah as he struggled.

He screamed and screamed as the Boo icons ate away at his clothing. His shirt went first, followed by his shoes, socks, pants and undergarments.

"No! You can't do this! You can't!"

"Says who?" asked Booverly as she and BooGene watched with morbid amusement.

Then, the Boo icons covered Noah's body from the neck down, their long tongues licking away at his bare skin. Then, his face contorted, and he started wailing "No" over and over, gasping and panting. Tears poured down his face.

"You sick monsters," snarled Nathan.

Noah squeezed his eyes shut, and he bit his lip. "Mhmm—no—no—please…"

Disgusted, Nathan turned his head away, only for BooGene and Booverly to grab his face and turn it back toward the screen, making him watch.

Noah's eyes snapped open, and his breathing turned labored and desperate.

"God…" he rasped.

Gadd looked ready to throw up. "This isn't funny anymore!" he said.

"No," said BooGene. "It was never funny to begin with."

Suddenly, Noah's body jolted, and a scream tore from him before the horrific scene cut to black.

_Noah—game over. 3:D_

Nathan started to hyperventilate. "[Bleep] this, okay?!" he exclaimed. "Just [bleep] this! [Bleep] this!"

In a panic, he leaped out of his seat and took off running, only for BooGene and Booverly to grab him and haul him back.

"Nathan, chill," Booverly said soothingly as the duo gently sat him back down.

The feed came back on, showing Noah's computer now powered off. A team of Boos began methodically disassembling it, carefully removing the hard drive before shoving what remained of the computer to the floor. Finally, they took turns beating it with Noah's baseball bat as that rap song from _Office Space_ began to play.

One Boo held up the hard drive. "Noah will live on in here," he said. "Forever."

On those words, the feed disconnected.

Booverly and BooGene rubbed the small of Nathan's back. "There, there," BooGene cooed. "No need to panic. It'll only make the situation worse, after all."

"You guys are d—ks," gasped Nathan.

"You can thank Luigi for that," said Booverly. "He made us into who we are today."

_Perfect, _typed the Boo in the Skype chat. _Now it's just Nathan, the geezer, and Luigi. Who will walk out alive?_


	10. Boo Boogaloo

**October 31, 2019**

**11:42 p.m.**

"Don't you think you've done enough for one night?!" snapped Gadd.

_No. Not at all._

"Well—what more do you want?" asked Nathan.

_We want to make all of you pay._

"For what? Refusing to believe your twisted logic?!" balked Nathan.

_For enjoying the sight of us getting SHWEEERRPP-SHLOOOOP-WHOOORPP-SHLEEEOOORG'ed into that f—ing housecleaning device. 3:D_

"Okay, we get it! Luigi sucked you all into the Poltergust! So, now you want to hunt down everyone who mains him in a tournament that you don't know jack [bleep] about!" hollered Nathan. "You're a f—ing idiot!"

_The only idiot here is you if you think this has a happy ending._

"Nathan," said Gadd. "I—I think it's him."

"Him?" repeated Nathan. Off of the look on Gadd's face, he said, "Oh—_him_."

A deep, throaty cackle was all it took to confirm the professor's suspicions.

_Yes—it is I, King Boo. And I've been on this Skype chat the whole time, even before Vicky tried to dictate terms to us. 3:D_

"I gave Luigi a brand-new Poltergust," said Gadd. "He's gonna fight his way to the top of that hotel, and then he's gonna face you—and win. There's no way out of this. Please—just cut your losses and let them go."

_Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? But I didn't go through all of this just to relinquish my prize. By the time this is over—I'm gonna have so many artworks to admire. I might even wind up having an ART SALE._

"Are you serious?" gasped Nathan. "You're talking about uprooting _thousands_ of innocent lives! All because of a conflict _you_ escalated!"

_That's right, Nathan! Tonight, I'm painting the town red! If anyone attempts to bring destruction down upon me, then I won't hesitate to react in kind. As one of my Boos mentioned earlier, my power and mere pleasure is the only reason you're still alive. 3:D_

"Believe me," Gadd said firmly, "when I tell you that if Luigi was assured of the former eventually, then he would cheerfully accept the latter."

_Yeah—I think I got that figured out. And the feeling is mutual._

"Oh, dear God in Heaven," moaned Nathan. "I gotta…"

Switching to Messenger, he saw Luigi cautiously tiptoeing through the hotel's next floor, Polterpup at his heels.

"Luigi," said Nathan. "King Boo—he knows everything. He was eavesdropping on all of us from the word 'go'. He's planning a manhunt of your fans on a global scale."

"If the manhunt hasn't already begun," said Luigi.

_Maybe it has,_ typed King Boo.

"There's gotta be something we can do," said Nathan.

_Don't even think about calling the police,_ warned King Boo.

"Nathan—I'm gonna try and reach the top before that happens," Luigi said, trying to sound soothing and calm.

"What about me?" asked Nathan. "I'm not just gonna sit here and watch you get buffeted by ghosts!"

"Given your current situation—the best thing you can do—is pray," said Luigi.

Nathan sighed heavily. "I guess I'll do that, then."

He stiffened as he received a Gmail notification. Logging into his Gmail account, he froze when he saw that King Boo had sent him an email.

"He—he sent me something," gasped Nathan, "via Gmail."

"King Boo has a Gmail account?" asked Luigi.

"Wh—what did he send you?" asked Gadd.

"It's—a link."

"Don't click on it," cautioned Luigi. "It could be a virus or spyware or _something_."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "He's a _Boo_, not a hacker," he said.

"_Whatever_ it is, it can't be good," said Luigi.

Cackling sounded as Nathan's cursor began to move seemingly by itself!

"Hey! Stop that!" shouted Nathan.

Gadd frowned. "What's wrong, Nathan?"

"My cursor—my cursor is alive!"

"What do you mean?" asked Gadd.

"I mean, I'm not touching the mouse—and yet the cursor is moving!" Nathan explained as he began using the mouse to fight the seemingly sentient cursor for control.

"Your cursor isn't alive," said Gadd. "I think King Boo has taken control of the computer you're using!"

"He's probably controlling all of them," added Luigi.

Nathan swore as the cursor, now under King Boo's direction, clicked on the link, taking him to the LiveLeak webpage.

"A video?" asked Nathan.

"Nate—he's sharing your screen with me," said Gadd. "I think he wants me to see this, too."

As the video began to play, Nathan had some clue why that was the case. Boos were pouncing on unsuspecting gamers, swarming them by the scores and roughing them up before forcing them into paintings. And these weren't any ordinary gamers—they were Luigi mains! To make things worse, the incident was being captured on their live streams, so that their audience could hear them screaming and pleading fruitlessly with the Boos as they slowly overcame them. The attacks were reminiscent of being swatted, and Nathan and Gadd had no choice but to watch. Nathan tried to exit out of the video, but it kept disappearing and appearing in another part of his screen.

"Please!" he heard one Luigi main wail. "I have a family!" But the Boos didn't care, forcing their target to watch as they did away with the aforementioned family before wrestling the main into a portrait.

Even teenaged and prepubescent gamers weren't safe from their wrath.

The video then cut to an empty room, the camera panning over to a laptop as a printer whirred to life, spitting out multiple sheets of paper. A Boo reached in and removed the sheets from the printer's tray, methodically arranging them into a neat stack and showing them to the camera with a fiendish giggle.

Nathan's eyes goggled. "I recognize that laptop and printer," he said. "That's—that's mine!"

The sheets of paper contained names, gamer tags and addresses, the Boo displaying them one by one.

"Nate," said Gadd. "This—this is a frame-up. They're trying to make it look like you're their accomplice!"

BooGene laughed. "Winning is a prerequisite for maintaining the title of Smash's best Luigi main," he explained. "When these other mains started challenging your authority, so to speak, you had to put them in their place. That's where _we_ come in."

"No," gasped Nathan. "You're insane. You're f—ing psychopaths, all of you!"

_We're not psychopaths,_ typed King Boo. _We're high-functioning sociopaths. Very big difference._

The video ended, and King Boo exited out of the LiveLeak page.

_Do I have your attention now? 3:D_

"You're a sick [bleep]," said Nathan.

_Hey Professor—here's a gift for you…_

"Great, now he's sending _me_ something," Gadd said a few seconds later.

"Is it an email?" asked Nathan.

"No, it's a…" The elderly professor's mouth flew open. "J—s, Mary and Joseph! Where did you get this?!" His face flushed. "This is reprehensible, do you hear me?"

"What? What did he…?"

"You know what? Congratulations, King Boo—I'm calling the FBI," spat Gadd. "Congratulations, scumbag."

_Don't do it, Professor. 3:D_

"I'm calling them," said Gadd, snatching up his cell phone and dialing.

"Yes, hi," he spoke into the phone. "My name is Professor Elvin Gadd, and there's someone making direct threats online against me and two of my acquaintances. Yeah, my location is…" He told the caller his location. "The person threatening me has an agenda against someone I'm mentoring, and he's very dangerous, so I hope you take that into consideration. Thank you. Please, hurry. I'll be waiting." He hung up. "Let's see how you do against a phalanx of armed federal agents, King Boo."

_You shouldn't have done that._

"Yes, well—you shouldn't have targeted Luigi—again," Gadd shot back.

"Professor—what did he send you?" asked Nathan.

"I don't wanna talk about it," said Gadd. "Tell Luigi that the FBI is on their way, and that this mess is almost over."

"You think the FBI can help?" asked Luigi when Nathan passed along the news.

"That's our only hope, L," said Nathan.

He looked up as another feed came to life on his chat, showing an eerily-lit room.

"Hey, genius, we can see you," said Nathan. "Hey, buddy!"

No answer.

"What room is that, anyway?" asked Gadd.

"Maybe it's someone's suite," suggested Nathan. "King Boo's—or one of his lackeys' or his fan club president's—Hellen's."

"Probably," said Gadd.

Nathan's breath caught as a familiar man in green walked into the shot.

"Wait—Luigi!" he called out. "Luigi!"

Luigi stopped. "Yeah?"

"Look to your right," said Nathan.

Luigi turned and faced the computer screen.

"Luigi, my boy, can you hear us?" asked Gadd.

"Hold on a second," said Luigi, hurrying over to the computer and sitting in front of it. "Hey."

"Hey, Luigi," said Nathan.

"Hi, Nathan, Professor," greeted Luigi.

Polterpup jumped into Luigi's lap, the man in green petting him as he spoke.

"How goes it?" asked Gadd.

"I'm close," replied Luigi. "I can feel it. Everything's getting more treacherous."

"Indeed," said Nathan. "As we speak, there are Boos shoving Smash players who main you into paintings. You've got to find and defeat King Boo as soon as possible!"

"And once I beat him, then I can free all of my mains using my Dark-Light Device," said Luigi.

_Why, hello, Luigi, _typed King Boo. _So nice of you to join us._

"Oh, no," breathed Gadd. "He knows you're there. That's why he activated that computer."

_Bingo. I'm actually amazed you got this far, Luigi._

Luigi pointed the Poltergust's nozzle at the screen. "Those gamers have never seen you before in their lives," he said. "Let them go."

_Well, you're the one with the Poltergust, _typed King Boo. _Make me. 3:D_

"I mean it, King Boo," said Luigi. "No more of this madness. Just you and me, one-on-one. Right here, right now."

_Oh, my sweet, sweet Luigi—that sounds like fun. But I have a better idea._

"What's that?" asked Luigi.

_The cunning warrior attacks neither body nor mind. And I've waited for this moment for a very long time. But now that your gorgeous face is in front of me—it's time to party._

Luigi let out a small yelp as the lights went out.

_Now we're REALLY gonna have some fun… 3:D_

**Please R&R.**


	11. Wicked Games

**TW: Violence, disturbing content and major character deaths**

**October 31, 2019**

**11:50 p.m.**

Nathan, Gadd and Luigi hardly dared to breathe.

"What are you gonna do?" Luigi asked.

_You'll see. 3:D_

"Oh, God…" Luigi uttered in a choked voice.

_He's not listening right now, Luigi._

In the green-clad ghost wrangler's lap, Polterpup barked agitatedly.

"Luigi," Nathan said urgently. "Whatever he asks you—don't answer. Do _not_ give in."

King Boo's feed then showed him running a program called Drillbit.

"What is he doing now?" Luigi frantically asked. "_What is he doing now?!_"

"Just don't answer!" Gadd joined in. "Whatever you do, _do not_ answer!"

And then a video began to play on King Boo's feed, showing the Mario Bros cuddling together and relaxing after a long day. They'd obviously returned from a rescue mission, judging by their bruised and bandaged state.

Luigi had his eyes glued to the screen as he hugged Polterpup close. The paranormal puppy was frantically woofing now, as if sensing his master's distress.

"Hey, Luigi," video!Mario was saying.

"Hm?" asked video!Luigi.

"I shouldn't be telling you, this, but I've had a recurring dream—or rather, a recurring nightmare," whispered video!Mario.

Video!Luigi listened intently.

"It's a nightmare I've had for a very long time now," video!Mario went on, "and in it—Koopa—does something terrible."

"What does he do?" asked video!Luigi.

"He—tries to make me—choose," said video!Mario, "between you and Peachy. And…" He trailed off, tears streaming down his face.

"I know you'd find a way to save both of us," said video!Luigi.

"That's—that's the problem," said video!Mario. "What if there isn't a way? How can he expect me to…?"

"Because he wants to hurt you," said video!Luigi. "You can't let him do that, Mario—you just can't. You have to stand up and say, 'I'm not giving you any power over me'. And God knows—I'd rather die than have that turtle use me against you."

"Even so," sighed video!Mario, "I can't stop that nightmare from getting to me. Because I don't know if I can make that choice."

The video rewound itself.

"I don't know if I can make that choice."

Rewind.

"I don't know if I can make that choice."

Rewind.

"I don't know if I can make that choice."

King Boo suddenly appeared on his feed, his violet eyes searing into everyone else in the chat. And then he cackled before the feed reverted to the default user icon.

Silence.

"Okay," Nathan said finally. "You're a f—ing creep, or—what do you want?"

A second window popped up, showing none other than…

"M—M—Mario…!" whispered Luigi, reaching out a shaky hand.

The elder Mario brother, trapped in a portrait frame for the third time in his life, looked positively horrified. His face was moderately bruised and cut, his right eye was swelling up, and there were bloody bite marks on his arms and upper body. A violet aura encircled the portrait, which appeared to be levitating against a starry backdrop.

"Uh—KB?" Nathan said warily. "I don't like where this is going."

Luigi was breathing heavily, and a tiny whimper escaped his lips.

"Don't react," Gadd said to him. "That's—that's what he wants."

The man in green nodded vigorously. "I know."

"Wait—that's the rooftop," said Gadd. "King Boo—he's holding your friends on the hotel's roof! You need to get up there, posthaste!"

_Oh, no you don't, Luigi_, typed King Boo. _You stay right where you are._

"What are you gonna do to my brother?!" Luigi heatedly demanded.

_That, my dear green friend, is entirely dependent on you. 3:D_

Seconds later, a third chat window popped up, showing an auburn-haired woman wearing an orange negligee, relaxing in her room without a care in the world.

Luigi's lips began to tremble as he stared at the woman, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Luigi," Gadd said slowly. "Is that…?"

In a barely audible voice, Luigi rasped out, "That's Princess Daisy."

King Boo's face once again appeared in the chat, his monstrous gaze locked completely on Luigi.

And then he did the unthinkable.

_CHOOSE 3:D_

"Wha…?" uttered Luigi.

The Master of Illusions cackled as he initiated a countdown from one minute.

Luigi's entire body quivered as he shook his head in disbelief. "N—no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no!" he shouted.

"Oh, you've gotta be s—ing me!" snapped Nathan.

"For C—st's sake, man—haven't you tortured the poor youngster enough?!" roared Gadd.

King Boo muted both of their microphones in response.

Luigi whimpered and sobbed. "Please!" he cried. "She doesn't even know who you are; I never told her about you! Do what you want to me; I don't care—but just _leave her out of this!_"

King Boo ignored him. _CHOOSE 3:D_

"Don't hurt them, I'm begging you! I'll do anything you ask of me! I'll surrender myself to you right here and now, just—please! Please—I'll do anything!" Luigi was completely inconsolable, tears racing down his face as he sobbed explosively.

"No—no—NO!" he pleaded. "Oh—no! Please, don't make me do this! For God's sake, what more do you want from me?!"

_CHOOSE 3:D_

A few more Boos joined their King on the Skype chat, drinking in the sight of Luigi freaking out as he pleaded fruitlessly for the lives of the two people he cared about most in the world. His head fell into his hands, deep sobs heaving his frame, as the countdown relentlessly went on. King Boo wore an infuriating smirk on his face, his violet eyes dilated with pleasure as he studied Luigi's every move and listened to his every sob and entreaty. He cackled, and his brethren cackled along with him.

_CHOOSE 3:D_

But then, Luigi's breathing steadied, his sobs quieted, and he composed himself, narrowing his reddened eyes at King Boo.

"No," he defied as the countdown approached zero. "No. I'm not gonna let you do this. I'm not gonna let you control me. So [bleep] off."

King Boo cackled. "So be it," he said.

Nathan, Luigi and Gadd watched as ten Boos floated into Daisy's room and accosted her.

"_NOOOOOOO!_" screamed Luigi as he watched his beloved attempting to fight off her assailants while they dragged her into the bathroom. "_Daisy_!"

At that moment, the feed went to static.

"I'm sorry, Princess—I'm so sorry!" sniffled Luigi.

Cackling.

On the other feed, Mario's painting was lowered onto what appeared to be a tarp, and then the camera panned over to a large white container with a hazard symbol on it. Gadd had his hands pressed over his mouth, for as a man of science, he knew that the symbol identified whatever was in that container as some sort of corrosive acid.

"Luigi—don't look!" he said, his voice slightly cracking. "Just—don't look, okay?"

But it was no use. Luigi was frozen in his seat, unable to tear his gaze away as the camera switched to a high-angle view and the Boos slowly tipped over the container, its contents gushing out onto his elder brother's portrait.

Luigi let out a bloodcurdling scream, as if he was the one having corrosive acid poured onto him. Polterpup whined in sympathy. Nathan rubbed his jaw, and Gadd crossed himself.

"You fool," Nathan said to King Boo. "You d—n fool."

The feed zoomed back in, so that everyone could see Mario portrait dissolve and melt into an unrecognizable puddle of goop. King Boo laughed evilly the whole time.

A .jpg attachment was posted to the chat.

"N—nobody open that," said Gadd.

But once again, King Boo took control of the cursor and clicked on the attachment.

It was a photo of Daisy, her wrists bound to her shower head, her nude body riddled with darts, with a few embedded in—certain areas. Her eyes were wide open and dimmed, drying blood painting her chin. And there were three Boos on either side of her, posing for the camera.

"Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, n…" Luigi was practically hyperventilating at this point. Gooigi and Polterpup were doing their best to comfort him, but understandably, their efforts did no good.

"King Boo!" Nathan spoke up. "King Boo, enough! For God's sake, let it end! I know you want to look out for your fellow Boos, but this is overdoing it! Stop this whole game now, and I swear to you that we won't press charges. I swear it with Almighty God as my witness, we will take no vengeance!"

"This game ends when I decide it ends," said King Boo. "Besides, we're having too much fun to end it." He laughed devilishly.

"How—can you possibly—bring me lower?" Luigi demanded of his archnemesis. "What more can you take away from me?!"

"Gosh, Luigi, chill," King Boo said casually. "We can think up of more ways to have fun with you."

Nathan shook his head. "Have you no shame?" he asked.

"Nope—and I'm proud of it," replied King Boo. "Whatever shame I had flew out the window after the first time Luigi humiliated me."

"Here you go again, blaming Luigi for everything," said Gadd. "When are you going to realize that you brought all of this on yourself?"

"Oh, hey, Professor!" said King Boo. "I almost forgot about you! You've spent half the night as a bystander, haven't you? Well…" He chuckled. "Let's change that."

"No," said Nathan. "You leave him alone!"

"Make me," dared King Boo.

Gadd jumped out of his seat as his lab went dark.

"What do you say to—a blast from the past?" King Boo asked with a mirthless grin.

**Please R&R.**


	12. Zero Sum

**TW: Disturbing content and character death**

**November 1, 2019**

**12:06 a.m.**

"Professor—what is he talking about?" Nathan asked apprehensively as Luigi started breathing in sobs.

"I don't know," muttered Gadd. "I don't…"

King Boo sent the group another .jpg attachment, titled "True Love".

_Click on it, Professor,_ typed King Boo.

"Why don't _you_ click on it?" challenged Gadd.

_Click on it, and your protégé lives. _King Boo initiated a ten-second countdown.

Luigi blubbered incoherently.

"All right, all right—I'm opening the file right now!" said Gadd, clicking on the link. "Take it easy."

The attachment was a black-and-white photo of a teenaged couple, dressed formally and smiling with their arms around each other.

_Look familiar? 3:D_

"Where did you get this?!" snapped Gadd.

_I'm afraid that's not relevant right now._

King Boo then sent another attachment, entitled "Touch U Good".

_Open the file, Professor._

As King Boo initiated another ten-second countdown, Gadd immediately clicked on the attachment.

It showed another black-and-white photo of the same couple, this time sharing an intimate moment.

"Wait a minute," said Nathan. "That's—you!"

Gadd nodded.

"But who is she?" asked Nathan, indicating the girl in the photo.

_Who IS she?_

"I—I can't," Gadd said in a small voice.

_Professor, can you please identify the woman in the photo?_

"No," Gadd said vehemently. "You can't make me!"

"Please, Professor—just do as he says!" pleaded Luigi, tears racing down his face.

"I don't want to get her involved," said Gadd. "Can't you understand that?!"

_Don't sweat it, Luigi, _typed King Boo. _The Professor just needs some more encouragement, is all._

King Boo's video feed switched to a view of what was presumably his own computer as he typed a website URL into the internet browser.

The browser then showed the home page for some sort of high school Nathan had never heard of before.

_Am I jogging your memory, Professor?_

Gadd was nearly gray in the face.

King Boo then executed some sort of hacking tool which allowed him to access the high-school's yearbook database. He scrolled down to the yearbook for the 1915-16 school year and clicked on it.

There was a closeup of a teenaged Gadd, before the camera panned down to the woman in the photo. The yearbook identified her as Virginia Clarisse Davenport.

_How about now?_

"Stop," said Gadd. "Please, stop."

_It's amusing that you still think you can give me orders,_ typed King Boo.

"H—how does he even know you went to that high school, Professor?" Luigi wanted to know.

_I have my ways._

"Okay," said Nathan. "So—Virginia was your classmate in high school."

"Yeah," Gadd said breathily.

_Oh, there's more to it than that,_ typed King Boo.

The King's face reappeared on his feed, leering at Gadd. "Do you care to explain, my dear Professor, or should the honor go to me?"

Another video feed popped up, showing an elderly woman in a hospital bed, hooked to a respirator and a host of other machines.

A sob escaped Gadd's throat.

"Professor," Luigi spoke urgently, his voice jerky. "Who is she?"

"Virginia—she…" Gadd sobbed. "She's my high school sweetheart!"

Utter silence as his words sank in.

King Boo initiated yet another countdown from 1 minute.

"Wha—why are you counting down?!" Gadd demanded. "What do you want from me?!"

"Oh, I think you know, Professor," said King Boo.

"What do you think I did?" asked Gadd. "The two of us—we used to be friends, remember?"

"How could I forget?" smirked King Boo. "And it was because of that friendship that I gave you every opportunity not to interfere with my schemes."

"Wait—_what_?" balked Nathan.

"When I first moved to Boo Woods, the Boos and I used to get along," Gadd explained. "I witnessed King Boo's coronation myself, and he invited me to all of his balls and galas. But then…"

"…Luigi came along," King Boo finished, "and the good professor started encouraging him to trap ghosts and Boos right and left into that godforsaken vacuum."

"To rescue Mario—to prevent anything from happening to him!" Luigi broke in.

"What about the second time?" challenged King Boo.

"When you shattered the Dark Moon, you put a senior citizen—my mentor—in peril!" cried Luigi. "There were berserk ghosts all over Evershade Valley, and I had to capture them to ensure the Professor's safety, along with my own! Once the Dark Moon was repaired, we released the ghosts, and they bore us no ill will!"

"You released the ghosts—but not the Boos," said King Boo.

"I will _not_ be made the enemy here!" snapped Gadd. "You _know_ why I had to keep the Boos contained!"

King Boo simply cackled. "And now—you know _precisely_ what I want from you," he said.

Gadd looked stricken. "N—no…"

"I want you to go to your little vault and release all of the spirits Luigi has captured throughout his little _adventure_," said King Boo.

"You're insane! You're…"

"Their freedom—or Virginia's life," King Boo calmly told him. "Your choice."

"For the love of God!" screamed Gadd. "Kill me, but leave her alone! You don't have to involve her! She's old and frail! She doesn't even know what happened between us!"

"Tick-tock, Professor," said King Boo.

"No, no, no!" shouted Luigi. "This is absolutely ridiculous! Stop this right now! I'm not f—ing around! Stop this _right now_!"

"King Boo, please," Nathan chimed in. "It doesn't have to end this way!"

"Just—let's just sit down and think about this, okay?" pleaded Elvin. "We can find a way to settle this rigmarole!"

"I agree," said King Boo. "I just told you how—but it's a limited-time offer."

"I'm telling you—what you're about to do—you'll have to live with it for all eternity," warned Gadd. "Please—don't do this to us!"

"That's up to you, Professor—and it looks like time is running out."

Gadd shook his head. "You don't have to do this," he tearfully whispered.

"Professor—don't you want this to be over?" asked King Boo.

"I want you—to leave us alone," said Gadd.

"It's quite simple, really," King Boo told him. "All it takes is the press of a button. Surely, you value your precious Virginia over your paranormal research."

The timer was now at 15 seconds. Gadd snatched at his mop of hair.

"Dear God—what do I do?" he asked. "Just tell me what to do…"

"This is your last chance, Professor," hissed King Boo. "My brethren—or Virginia."

At the last possible second, Gadd pounded his console in frustration. "Fine—okay!" he exclaimed. "You win! Just—leave Virginia alone!"

"Professor, no!" cried Luigi.

"I'm sorry," whispered Gadd as he pressed a button on his console.

"Wise decision," said King Boo.

"What have you done?" gasped Nathan.

"I'm sorry, Nate. I'm sorry, Luigi. I just—I couldn't let Virginia die," Gadd said in defeat.

"Thank you, my dear Elvin," said King Boo. "I know that must've been very difficult for you."

A chorus of giggling and cackling sounded. Nathan, Gadd and Luigi watched as several Boos floated into Virginia's hospital room, staring menacingly down at her.

"What are you—what are you doing?" asked Gadd. "I did what you wanted! I freed the Boos! I'm begging you—don't hurt her!"

The Boos flew into all of the machines keeping Virginia alive. Gadd grabbed at his hair a second time as alarms began to sound. The elderly woman's eyes snapped open, and the trio could see the pain and confusion in them as her body began to thrash wildly on the bed. To their horror—they could faintly hear her desperately struggling for breath.

"Virginia?" bellowed Gadd. "_Virginia_!"

King Boo laughed mirthlessly.

Five minutes elapsed before Virginia's futile struggles ended. As she went limp on the bed, her monitor flatlined, that familiar, droning beep filling the hospital room.

"No!" wailed Gadd. "No, no, _no_!" He exploded in tears.

Luigi crossed himself and muttered a prayer.

"You f—ing b—d!" roared Gadd. "You gave me your word!"

"You didn't actually think I'd spare her life, did you?" smirked King Boo. "Funny how love can cloud a person's judgment."

"Why?" blubbered Gadd. "Why? Virginia and the others—they were innocent people…"

"There were innocent people in Boo Woods—before Luigi showed up with his beloved Poltergust," retorted King Boo.

"It was wrong for me and Mario to routinely trespass your ghost houses," said Luigi. "I admit it. I'm sorry."

"See? _Now_ you respect me," sneered King Boo, "because I'm a threat. It seems that businesspeople, politicians and even whole countries want respect, and they'll pay through the nose to get it. Unfortunately for you, I never asked for an apology—and I don't _want_ an apology. It's too late for that, Luigi—_eighteen years_ too late. The only thing I want you to do—is suffer."

On those words, his feed reverted to the "default user" icon.

"We're all gonna die," Gadd mumbled, over and over. "We're all gonna die."

"Professor…" Nathan started to say.

The trio jumped out of their seats as a seemingly innocuous ad for "free live cams" began to play. Nathan quickly recognized some of the video clips from the hidden files he'd viewed earlier, particularly Peach and Daisy topless and Luigi shirtless.

"No," Nathan heard Luigi say as he dismissed the ad. "Don't think like that, Professor. That's what King Boo wants. We can't let him win, okay? We just can't."

"He's won already," said Gadd.

Luigi's face was stone. "No, he hasn't," he said. "He just has the upper hand—for now. But I swear to you—I'm gonna get us out of this."

"I—I believe you," said Nathan, and he did. He really did.

It was then he realized that the pink gates were no longer over the doors and windows, and he was free to exit the building. Setting his lips, Nathan gathered up his things.

"Where are you headed?" asked Gadd.

"The airport," explained Nathan. "If I'm lucky, then I'll be able to catch a flight to a city near the Last Resort and then bike the rest of the way."

"You're not actually considering…?" Luigi began.

"What other choice do I have?" challenged Nathan. "I'm not gonna let you die in there, Luigi!"

"I'm not gonna die," said Luigi. "Not tonight."

"You're my main and my best friend," Nathan told him, "and as such, I need to have your back. At the very least, you shouldn't face King Boo alone."

"I have Polterpup and Gooigi," said Luigi. "Rushing over to help me puts the future of the Easton Kingdom at risk! You're next in line to the throne, remember?"

Nathan huffed. "I watched King Boo and his subjects pick off my fiancée, my unborn child and several of my closest friends—you think I want to be his next victim?!"

"You still have a future to look forward to," Luigi shot back. "_I_ don't!"

Nathan hesitated. "I—I don't follow…"

The plumber reached into his pocket, pulled out a small, black box and opened it.

"God in Heaven," murmured Nathan. "It's—a ring."

"You were gonna…" breathed Gadd. "J—s, Luigi…"

"Something told me that we were ready," said Luigi, "but the Boos—they took her from me, and they took my bro from me!" He let out a sob.

"Luigi, I'm so sorry," said Nathan.

"What am I gonna tell Peach and the Toads?" Luigi tearfully went on. "I had a chance to save him, and I blew it! What if they hold me responsible?"

"They won't," said Gadd. "I'm sure they'll understand."

"Hey," said Nathan. "You did everything you could. I mean, what more could you have done?"

"I could've taken a different route—I could've just walked on past these computers. Maybe then they wouldn't have forced me into their twisted game and tried to make me choose!"

"They could've ensnared you in this either way," said Nathan. "Now, I'm telling you for the last time—you've got to let me help!"

"I'm sorry, Nate," sniffled Luigi, "but this is something I have to do on my own."

Nathan's head fell into his hands.

Then, Luigi addressed King Boo, giving a look that could kill on the spot. "You're still here, aren't you?" he asked.

_Indeed. And I'm not going anywhere. 3:D_

"You—you wanna know something funny?" Luigi went on. "You should've dealt with Nate and his friends. They were gonna turn the other cheek and act like nothing ever happened. Even after what you did to Vicky and her baby—they were willing to forego revenge and not interfere with your little scheme." His eyes narrowed, and his voice turned dangerous. "But _that's_ not what _I'm_ gonna do."

"Luigi…" said Gadd.

But Luigi ignored his mentor, holding up several sheets of paper. "Do you see these?" he spat. "Do you know what these are? These are all of the correspondences between you and your fan club president that I've managed to track down. These are chat transcripts, financial transactions, incoming and outgoing phone calls, text messages, emails and social media activity. This is hard evidence of your conspiracy to trap me and my friends in this godforsaken hotel, and I've also made copies of those videos to prove that you and the other Boos stalked us beforehand." Luigi set down the stack of papers and jabbed an angry finger at his screen. "You are _finished_, do you hear me?! _Finished!_"

_You suggested one-on-one combat, earlier, if I'm not mistaken._

"Don't take the bait, Luigi," warned Nathan, but Luigi was operating on raw emotion now.

_Well, I've reconsidered. I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. 3:D_

"Luigi—he's gonna kill you!" exclaimed Gadd.

"I'm already dead," Luigi replied.

_You and me, up on the roof. I'll be waiting for you. 3:D_

"Fine," Luigi said in a hard voice. "See you soon."

"Luigi…!" exclaimed Nathan, but the man in green had already disconnected from the chat.

Gadd and Nathan exchanged alarmed looks.

"Go! Go!" the professor shouted after a while.

Nathan didn't need to be asked twice. Leaving the computer on, he grabbed his things, stuffed his phone into his pocket and darted out of the embassy.

_I'm coming, Luigi,_ he thought. _Just hold on…_

**Please R&R.**


	13. Falling Apart

**TW: Nudity and disturbing content**

**November 1, 2019**

**12:48 a.m.**

At this time of night, there wasn't a soul to be seen or heard save for Nathan astride his bike, pedaling at full-speed towards the airport. All of the houses around him were darkened, and save for the moonlight and the handful of streetlights, the area was completely dark. He thought he could hear sinister giggling behind him, which only made him pedal harder and pray that he'd make it on time.

"Why don't you just let them fight it out?" he heard BooGene ask.

"They could both use it," Booverly chimed in.

Nathan ignored them.

"He's doomed, anyway," said BooGene. "They all are."

Light rain began to fall as Nathan approached the brightly-lit airport. He was briefly reminded of a lighthouse and of a small boat slowly guiding herself ashore. Above him, a plane gracefully took off from the runway, her engine a low whistle as she made for the night sky.

Nathan's phone vibrated, and he saw that it was a Skype call. "Hello?"

Professor Gadd looked frantic. "Oh, Nathan—things have taken a bad turn!" he cried.

_No [bleep], Sherlock_, Nathan thought. "What is it?"

"I've lost all contact with Luigi," Gadd reported. "When I called him with the Virtual Boo, he sounded _frightfully_ upset!"

"Well, what do you expect?" asked Nathan. "His would-be fiancée was used as a dartboard, and his brother…" He trailed off.

"I'll never forget the _hate_ in his voice as long as I live," Gadd went on. "He told me that he was 'going to finish this' and then hung up on me before I could even object! I think—he discarded the Virtual Boo on purpose!"

"Oh, no," said Nathan. "I'll—I'll try to call him, but I doubt that I can get through to him. After what those Boos wrought…"

"You _have_ to try!" entreated Gadd. "He's playing right into King Boo's hands! And his current emotional state will make him unable to think straight during a fight!"

"Like I said," Nathan told him, "I can't promise you anything. Could you keep the call active so we can update each other?"

Gadd nodded. "Okay," he said.

Nathan dismounted his bike and walked it to a nearby bike rack, where he secured it. Then, he whipped out his phone, opened the Messenger app and called Luigi.

The man in green answered with a sharp "What?"

"Professor Gadd called me," said Nathan. "He told me that you severed contact with him! He's worried about you. _I'm_ worried about you."

"Don't be," snapped Luigi. "I'm fine."

"Look," sighed Nathan. "I know how much Daisy and Mario meant to you, but I just don't want you to do anything stupid."

"Like put an end to King Boo's tyrannical reign once and for all?" asked Luigi.

"It won't bring them back," Nathan said patiently, "and he's still holding Peach and the Toads, not to mention there are probably more of your fans and mains he's targeting. If anything, you need to free them before even _considering_ the idea of revenge."

"What difference does it make?" huffed Luigi. "They're doomed, anyway. How can I save them when I couldn't even save my—God—mit, Nathan!" He exploded in sobs. "This is all your fault! None of this would've happened if you hadn't run off to the embassy!"

"I didn't know what else to do, and you know it!" Nathan said hotly.

"I was very clear that Daisy was _not_ to get involved!" Luigi went on. "All you had to do was listen to me! But hey, you're heir to the kingdom, so you can do whatever you want, right?"

"It wasn't like that!" Nathan shot back. "I was only trying to help!"

"And _that_ worked out well, didn't it?"

"You think I wanted to get those two killed? Well, I didn't!" cried Nathan.

"Why didn't you just stay at home and let me handle this?" Luigi tearfully demanded of Nathan. "I had the situation under control—until you and your friends tried to play hero!"

Nathan shook his head in disbelief. He would've bit Luigi's head off right then and there had he not sensed the intense grief and stress which compelled him to say such things.

"Are you saying we were supposed to watch helplessly from the sidelines while you fought against someone who wanted you dead?" asked Nathan. "That wasn't gonna happen! We _had_ to do something!"

"Oh, you did something, all right—you turned this into an even bigger mess, and I'm not sure if I can clean it up anymore!" railed Luigi.

"You know, you're not the only person who lost a loved one to King Boo," said Nathan, "so lay off, okay?"

"Why should I? Your fiancée is the one who caused this whole thing to snowball!" hiccupped Luigi. "I don't even know what in the Inferno she was thinking when she decided to threaten King Boo with military force! And what even made her think she had the authority?!"

Nathan saw red at that comment. "Hey! You're not pinning this on Vicky!" he barked. "You're not gonna desecrate her memory on _my_ watch! All she wanted was to help you—she just wanted to help!"

"Very kind of her," Luigi said bitterly. "Very kind of you all. But you know what? I don't need your help! Because you don't know what it's like, having King Boo haunt your dreams every night! You don't understand the pain I'm feeling! So why don't you just mind your own business and let me rescue what's left of my friends in peace?!"

Hurt twisted Nathan's features. "Fine, be that way," he bit out. "Get yourself killed for all I care. I doubt that you can even last five minutes—you're just a sad, scared little man with a vacuum cleaner on his back!"

Luigi's face paled, and his mouth fell open.

"You know what—[bleep] you, Nathaniel Turner," he said when he found his voice. "[Bleep] you!"

"[Bleep] you, too!" shouted Nathan. "I wish I'd mained someone else!"

"Sometimes, I wish the same thing!" hollered Luigi.

Nathan hung up with a frustrated sigh.

"D—mit!" he hissed. He hadn't meant for their conversation to spin out of control, but Luigi started it by biting the hand that fed him!

"Nate? What happened?" he heard Gadd ask.

"This is hopeless," he choked out. "Completely hopeless. He won't listen to me, and I'm sure he won't listen to whoever else tries to snap him out of it. He's beyond help now."

"I could hear you yelling at him," said Gadd. "Did you two get into a fight?"

"Yeah," Nathan admitted as a tear seeped from his eye. "He started blaming me, Vicky and my other friends for what went down, and that _hurt_."

"He's hurting, Nathan."

"Well, so am I, but I'm not lashing out at people!" Nathan retorted.

"I'm not excusing what he said to you," said Gadd. "I just want you to know that he didn't say those things to be mean. Once he calms down, he'll apologize."

"Fat chance," said Nathan. "All he cares about now is seeing King Boo defeated, even if that means pushing all of his friends away. God be with us, Professor." He pocketed his cell phone before striding into the airport terminal.

His luck held when he saw a flight bound for a city near the Last Resort that he'd pinpointed using Google Maps. He proceeded toward the ticket counter and stood in line, trying to find some comfort of being in a public place.

"You're in luck, there's still room," said the ticketing agent when his turn came, "and with all of your eligible discounts applied, your fare comes out to $175.31. Would you like me to book you the cabin?"

"Please," said Nathan.

"Are you checking any baggage?"

"No. Thank you."

"Please, make yourself comfortable in our lounge. We'll let you know when it's time to board."

Nathan quickly found the aforementioned lounge and was happy to hear that there was an open bar. He wasted no time getting settled in with a few drinks, wishing that all of this would soon reveal itself as nothing more than a horrible dream.

But alas, that wasn't to be.

"Nathan? Hey, Nathan, come back."

Nathan fished his phone back out. "I'm still here."

Gadd frowned. "Are you drunk?"

"I plan to be."

"If you want to help Luigi, then getting intoxicated won't get you anywhere."

Nathan shrugged. "What doesn't matter? He made it clear that he doesn't want or need my help."

"You're giving up on him, just like that? After only one heated exchange?"

"_He_ gave up on _me_," said Nathan, taking another swig of his drink, "just like he gave up on you."

"I don't think he's giving up on anyone," said Gadd. "He's just not thinking straight right now. I'm gonna keep trying to get in touch with him, okay?"

"Yeah, well—good luck with that," said Nathan.

He knocked back his drink and ordered another one.

"Hey," said the bartender. "I saw on the news that Vicky and her family were killed in a freak accident at their Halloween social. How are you holding up?"

Nathan sighed. "Not good. I was looking forward to our wedding." His head snapped up. "Accident?"

"That's what the authorities said. You—think it's something else? Their enemies?"

"I'd rather not talk about it right now," said Nathan.

"I'm here when you're ready, okay?" The bartender patted Nathan on the back.

Nathan smiled wanly. "Thanks."

Once the bartender left, Nathan spoke to Gadd.

"You're not gonna believe this," he said. "The Boos tried to make the deaths of Vicky and her family look like an accident."

"Or maybe they pulled some strings or issued threats—or both," said Gadd. "I don't know if the story will hold, though. I'm sure the neighbors heard the screams, like we did."

"We can only pray that someone comes forward with the truth," said Nathan, "and that someone will believe them."

"Now that would be a miracle, wouldn't it?" asked Gadd.

"Yeah," replied Nathan, and the two shared a laugh.

The "default user" icon appeared next to Gadd, followed by two more.

"Seriously?" hissed Nathan. "Did they hack into my phone or something?!"

One of the new chat windows cut to a video feed of Nathan's living room, and another cut to what appeared to be the interior of a ship's cabin.

"He's trying to make a break for it," murmured Gadd.

"Or maybe that's one of his minions trying to run," said Nathan, "or Hellen…"

The door to his room opened, and a Boo floated inside, carrying a small bundle in his arms.

"What are you—what are you doing?" asked Nathan.

The Boo waved wryly at the camera before gently laying the bundle onto the sofa and flying out of the camera's range.

"Hello?" called Nathan. "Hello, hello?"

Cackling was his sole response.

Gadd stared at the bundle. "What's that?" he asked. "What are they trying to frame you for now?"

"I really don't wanna know," Nathan replied.

They jumped as the bundle moved.

"Someone's in there," said Gadd. "Nathan—they've framed you for kidnapping!"

"Kidnapping?! Why…?"

Nathan fell silent as the blanket covering the bundle was pushed aside, revealing a familiar cap with red spots.

"Toad," he said.

Toad rolled off the sofa, landing with a squeak on the ground.

"Toad! Can you hear us?" asked Nathan.

"Toad?" Gadd joined in.

Toad sat up, blinking at his surroundings, before getting to his feet and tottering over to the computer with squeaky footsteps. His tiny feet kicked wildly as he struggled up onto Nathan's chair—no easy feat due to his small stature.

Hearing more squeaky footsteps, Nathan glanced at the feed of the ship's cabin and caught sight of Blue Toad as he walked into the shot.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Nathan.

Toad finally succeeded in pulling himself onto Nathan's chair and was now staring, wide-eyed, into the camera, bruised and smudged with dirt and sweat. Then, he jerked his head left, and then right, as if aware that a Boo was watching him.

"Toad?" Nathan spoke calmly in a low voice. "My name's Nathan, and I'm one of Luigi's friends." He wasn't quite sure if that was the case anymore, but he had to do his best to comfort the poor guy.

Panic contorted Toad's features. "Help me!" he cried. "I'm Princess Peach's head retainer! Can you hear me?!"

"Yes," said Nathan. "Can you hear _me_?"

Toad nodded, sniffling. "It was so awful! One moment, I was relaxing in my room, and the next, King Boo came and…" He wept.

"He let you go," said Gadd, "but why did they put you in Nate's house?"

"Waah!" Toad yelped. "Oh—Professor! It's you! Phew! For a second there, I thought—wait a minute, did you say this is Nate's house? Huh. It looks pretty neat!"

"Thanks," said Nate.

"Luigi—he's coming, right?" asked Toad. "For Peach, Mario and the others?"

Nathan cleared his throat. "Y-yeah," he said.

"Yippee!" cheered Toad. "I knew I could always count on Luigi! He's good at that type of thing!"

"Yes, he is," said Gadd.

"Toad?" they heard Blue Toad ask. "Is that you?"

"Yeah!" replied Toad. "They let you go, too?"

"I—think so," replied Blue Toad, now seated before the computer in the ship's cabin. He was also sweaty, dirty and bruised. "What are we doing on a Skype chat, though?"

"Whatever it is, it can't be good," cautioned Nathan. "King Boo's hiding somewhere here."

At the mention of King Boo, the two Toads cursed in sync.

"Where is he?" growled Blue Toad. "I'll rip out his eyeballs and [bleep] on his brain!"

"And I'll take his crown and shove it up his…" Toad started.

_Oh, I seriously doubt that_, typed King Boo.

"What have you done with our Princess?" Blue Toad asked, "and what have you done with Mario?"

_Patience, my dear Toads. We were just about to get to that. 3:D_

"Gee, I hope Luigi gets to them on time," said Blue Toad.

"He will," Toad said confidently. "He always does!"

_You really think so? 3:D_

"Yeah, I do!" Toad said vehemently. "He's gonna kick your f—ing [bleep], you hear me! And then he's gonna suck you up into that vacuum, where you belong!"

_Wow, you kiss the Princess with that mouth?_

"You're gonna lose," Blue Toad chimed in. "Luigi may be scared stiff, but he'll find a way to stop you!"

_There's a first time for everything_, typed King Boo, _but we'll deal with that later_.

Nathan turned as an airline employee walked into the lounge.

"I'm sorry, everyone—but the flight has been delayed," she said. "I'll let you know if there's any more information."

"Great," grumbled Nathan as the employee left.

"What are you doing at the airport?" asked Toad.

"Just a little—brief escape," said Nathan, knowing that King Boo was listening in. "A self-_rescue_, if you will."

"Where's Vicky?" Blue Toad wanted to know.

"Uh—she's—sick."

"BS, Nathan—BS!" snapped Blue Toad. "The Boos got her, didn't they?"

"Yeah," Nathan replied.

"Why?" asked Toad.

"First of all, because she's one of Luigi's fans—and second of all, because she tried to play hardball with King Boo."

"But mostly because she was 'fraternizing with the enemy', so to speak," said Gadd.

"Yikes," said Toad. "He's going all-out this time. I'd call Luigi, but—they took my phone!"

"Mine, too," said Blue Toad.

"Use mine," said Nathan. "It's on the dining room table."

Toad's face brightened. "Really?"

_Don't bother. We've already cut the wires. 3:D_

"I should've known," huffed Nathan.

_Just sit back and enjoy the show. 3:D_

"Show?" frowned Toad. "What are you talking about?"

Nathan's phone suddenly went black.

"Hello?" he asked. "You guys still there?"

The phone then reverted to the Home screen before opening the YouTube app. Nathan tried to exit out of YouTube and reopen the Skype app, only for the latter app to crash each time.

"Can you guys hear me?" asked Nathan. "Hello?"

No answer.

Nathan smoothed his hair and took several calming breaths. On the YouTube app, a video titled "H+P (NSFW)" loaded and then began to play, automatically switching to full screen mode.

"What is this?" Nathan wanted to know.

A pop-up notification indicated that the Skype call was still active.

_You'll see,_ King Boo replied.

In the video's first frames, a ghostly woman with blue hair, blue skin, yellow eyes and thin, baby pink lips smiled and gave a wave to the camera. She stood in a dimly lit bedroom, wearing a sheer, baby-doll nightie. Slowly, she undid the pins holding up her beehive hairstyle, allowing her hair to tumble down over her shoulders. Then, she pulled off her nightie, suggestively swiveling her hips as she did.

"A striptease?" scowled Nathan. "What's the point in making us watch a striptease?"

_Keep watching. 3:D_

The ghostly woman presently stood nude before the camera, an eager, aroused expression on her face, trailing her fingers along her breasts and down her stomach. Then, she moved aside to reveal another woman, also nude, laying on the bed. Nathan tried to catch a glimpse of this other woman's face, but the setting was too dark for him to do so.

However, he _was_ able to see that this other woman's wrists were bound to the headboard with a pink ribbon.

The ghostly woman licked her lips and beckoned for the camera to follow her as she glided toward the bed.

"Wait a minute," said Nathan, recognizing the ghostly woman from the pictures he saw earlier. "That's—Hellen. Your fan club president."

_Bingo. She really came through for me tonight, so a grand reward is in order, don't you agree?_

The scene then cut to a view of the other woman's bare feet, shapely and well-pedicured, her toes painted a sparkly pink. Following a lingering shot of those lovely-looking feet, the camera slowly panned to the left, revealing the woman's smooth-looking legs, continuing toward the swell of her hips and backside.

Nathan could make out Hellen saying something to the other woman, and then he saw her hand caress the woman's right thigh before starting to travel upward. The camera followed, making sure that the audience glimpsed every movement made.

Now, Nathan had a good view of the other woman's belly and abdomen as it gently pulsed in and out, her navel wriggling and writhing with her breaths. The camera tilted forward for a closer look at the curvy but well-muscled frame, alabaster skin gleaming in the milky light. Teasingly, Hellen's hand traced along the woman's right flank before it began to slide back down.

A shadow passed over the woman's skin, and Hellen's face came into view. Delicately, she traced a line of kisses on each of her ribs, and then did the same to her abs, working her way down her upper body. The other woman gasped and sighed in response, her skin beginning to flush.

"Well—uh…" said Nathan, feeling his cheeks growing hot and the blood rushing toward a particular southerly region.

_I know, right? It's only just beginning. 3:D_

Nathan squirmed in his seat as he listened to the other woman's breath quickening and deepening. After kissing across her—companion's—waistline, Hellen raised her head and smirked at the camera before sliding down out of the frame, spreading the other woman's legs and—

With a cough, Nathan lurched out of his seat, grabbed his things and retreated toward a quieter area of the lounge, away from prying eyes. Though he couldn't see what Hellen was up to, the sounds of kissing and licking and sucking and panting surely told him what was going on. The woman's skin had now flushed to a soft pink, her hips shuddering. Given the circumstances, Nathan didn't know whether to be creeped out or turned on.

"Okay, we get it," he said. "You have a bit of a fetish for—this kind of stuff. What's your point?"

_You'll figure it out. 3:D_

Nathan's eyes were glued to the woman's upper body, a film of sweat beginning to coat it as it wriggled and undulated. He could hear her moaning softly—almost as if she was trying to stifle the sound. Something about her dulcet voice banked into his memory, but he was too preoccupied by a familiar ache down there to give it much thought. He bit his lip and once again shifted in his seat.

_What's wrong, Nate? Feeling a little itch?_

Suddenly, the other woman's body fell still, chest heaving as she gasped for breath.

_Don't worry—it happens to everyone. It's nothing to be ashamed of. 3:D_

Hellen moved back into the shot, her skin also flushed, as she slid her body over her companion's. The image of the two women blurred, but the gasps, sighs, moans and whimpers left little to the imagination.

"Holy [bleep]," uttered Nathan, crossing his legs and trying to hide the bulge in his pants.

"Nathan…" said Gadd's voice. "Something's—happening…"

"Hm?" Nathan uttered, a little distractedly.

"A bunch of files I've never seen before are downloading onto my computer," Gadd explained. "It looks like—oh, my God! What kind of sick joke is this?!"

"What is it?" asked Nathan. "What's in those files?"

"Pictures and video of women doing—things," replied Gadd. "It's basically—Internet smut!"

"Who's sending you Internet smut, and why?" Nathan asked.

"They're trying to make it look like—I had this nasty stuff all along," Gadd said breathily. "First, they threaten me—now, they're trying to discredit me!"

"Can't you delete them?" asked Blue Toad.

"I'm trying to, but they just keep reappearing," said Gadd. "God—m son of a…"

_That's no proper language for a man of science_, typed King Boo.

"Well, wouldn't you swear up a storm if something like this was happening to you?!" bellowed Gadd.

"Keep it together, man!" entreated Toad. "This isn't gonna make things any better!"

"Great—now the 'delete' button just disappeared altogether, and I'm stuck with tons of lewd photos. Just swell."

"Professor, calm down," said Nathan. "I'm gonna try to call somebody and get this straightened out."

"For God's sake, hurry!" Nathan had never heard Gadd sound so stressed before.

A voice came over the terminal's PA system, announcing that Nathan's flight had been delayed for another hour.

"You gotta be s—ing me," muttered Nathan.

_Tonight's just not really your night, is it? 3:D_

"Yeah, no thanks to you," huffed Nathan.

Before he could do anything else, the steamy YouTube video re-focused, showing a close-up of a pair of blue breasts pillowed against a pair of creamy white ones. The two bodies were undulating together, and he could still hear the sounds of gasping and kissing and sighing. For the life of him, Nathan couldn't tear his eyes away.

Gadd's voice, along with the voices of the two Toads, sounded so far away.

"Nate?" Eventually, he was aware of Toad calling his name. "Nate? You didn't fall asleep, did you?"

"Uh—I'm still here," said Nathan.

"The Professor told me that you and Luigi had a fight earlier," said Toad. "Is—is that true?"

"Yes," sighed Nathan. "I'm afraid that some words were said and—I guess this situation got to both of us."

"This is very unlike Luigi," said Toad. "He gets a little angry sometimes, irate at worst, but he'd never get confrontational and start shouting matches with people—unless something happened."

"I'm not excusing his behavior," said Nathan, "but King Boo and his ilk have been playing mind games with him all night."

"Still—he'd never lose his cool unless something was really wrong," pressed Toad. "Is there something you're not telling me, Nathan?"

"What are you talking about?"

"There was something in your voice when I asked if Luigi was coming for the Princess, for Mario and for Yellow Toad," Toad explained. "You said that he was, but now I have a feeling that you weren't entirely forthcoming. Did—something happen to either of them?"

"Well…" Nathan started.

_Yes, did something happen to your beloved Mario? That would rile Luigi up more than anything._

"I didn't say a name!" shrieked Toad.

_It was a shame, really. He didn't deserve to go out like that. But Luigi only has himself to blame._

"What is he talking about, Nathan?" Toad wanted to know.

"Yeah, is Mario okay?" Blue Toad chimed in.

Nathan swallowed.

_C'mon, Nathan—answer the question._

"I—I…" Nathan drew a shaky breath. "I'm sorry, you two. I'm sorry."

"Oh, no," gasped Toad. "Don't tell me…"

"King Boo—tried to make Luigi choose between Mario and—and—Daisy," said Nathan, "but he couldn't. And he wouldn't. So, the Boos…"

"They—they—ended his game?!" cried Blue Toad. "No—no! Please, tell me that's not true!"

"I wish I could," Nathan choked out. "First, the Boos dragged Daisy into her bathroom and impaled her multiple times with darts. Then, they brought out Mario's portrait and—poured corrosive acid all over it. They're both gone. I'm sorry."

Both Toads blubbered. Then—

"_Mario_!" wailed Blue Toad.

Nathan could hear Toad throw up.

"Are you serious?!" Toad croaked. "And they made Luigi watch?!"

"Yes," replied Nathan. "Yes, they did."

"Oh, wow. No wonder…" Toad trailed off.

"After that, Luigi stormed off to confront King Boo," said Nathan. "Gadd told me that he was unable to reach him on the Virtual Boo, so I called him to try and calm him down. Then, things just—deteriorated. He lost his temper, and so did I." Tears came to his eyes. "I'm trying to catch a plane to go out after him. Maybe—he deliberately pushed me away to discourage me from doing that. But—I feel awful, you know? I just hope we can talk things out when this is over."

"He'll cool off after he's thrashed King Boo six ways to Sunday," Toad said optimistically.

"Yeah. I know you two will make up," said Blue Toad.

"Thanks," said Nathan. "I feel a little better now. But I don't know what's gonna happen afterward."

"We'll just have to band together and hope for the best," sighed Toad.

"Yeah," said Nathan. "Guess so."

Silence.

Then—

"Uh—hey, you guys…" said Gadd.

"He's still sending you lewd stuff?" asked Nathan.

"Not only that," Gadd was inches away from panicking. "I know who that other woman is."

The video still gave Nathan an eyeful of two pairs of breasts sandwiched together, sliding and bouncing as one. By now, the two women were sparkling with sweat.

"When I saw that blond hair, there wasn't a single doubt in my mind," Gadd went on.

"Who is she?" asked Nathan as a cold feeling began to well up inside him.

"I already had my suspicions when I saw the initial video, but I'd recognize that blond hair from anywhere in the world."

"Professor, who is she?" asked Toad. "Who is this woman?"

"She's—she's…"

There was a crackling noise, and then the Skype call disconnected.

"Hello?" called Nathan. "Hello, hello?!"

No answer.

Nathaniel Turner was left staring dumbly at the sensuous scene still playing out on the YouTube video.

The chances of this mess having a happy ending had grown alarmingly slim.

**Please R&R.**


	14. The Mad King

**Content warning for violence, blood and major character deaths!**

**November 1, 2019**

**1:22 a.m.**

Regaining his power of motion, Nathan exited out of the erotic YouTube video and finally managed to open up his Skype app. He attempted to call Professor Gadd, only to get rejected. Nathan's stomach lurched. There was no question in his mind that the eccentric professor and inventor was under attack by the Boos.

"I need another drink," he muttered, heading back to the bar and ordering a martini.

Seconds after he had the drink in his hand, he heard someone walk towards him.

It was an airline employee, holding a laptop. "This is for you," she said.

Tentatively, Nathan took the laptop. "Thanks," he said.

The airline employee smiled a sugary smile before walking off.

Nathan sat at a table in the lounge and booted up the laptop to find, like the previous one, that it had already been configured for him. He signed into his Facebook, Google and Skype accounts before putting on one of his Google Play Music playlists to soothe himself. After another attempt to contact Gadd failed, he took a swig of his martini and opened up the Messenger app, wondering if he should try to reach out to Luigi. They were both still a little upset, after all.

He jumped at the incoming Skype call chime before answering it.

The two Toads appeared on the screen, the red-spotted one still in Nathan's living room and Blue Toad still in the ship's cabin.

"Hey, you two," he said.

"Hey, Nate—you okay?" asked Blue Toad.

"Yeah—are you two okay?"

"Yeah," said Blue Toad.

"Yeah," echoed Toad.

"Have you tried calling Professor Gadd?" asked Nathan.

Toad nodded. "No dice," he said.

"Maybe he was about to tell us something the Boos didn't want us to hear," said Blue Toad, "so they attacked him."

"I forgot to ask," Nathan said to Blue Toad. "Whose boat is that? And how far are you from shore?"

"This isn't a boat," said Blue Toad. "It's a restaurant in the hotel—a pirate-themed restaurant. It's called The Spectral Catch."

"You're—still in the hotel," said Nathan.

Blue Toad nodded.

"Sign into your Facebook account," instructed Nathan. "That way, you can use Messenger to try and reach out to Luigi. Hopefully, he can make a side-stop to rescue you before…"

"I'm on it," said Blue Toad, and Nathan could hear his fingers flying over the keyboard.

"Guess I'd better try to contact him, too," said Toad, also signing into his Facebook account.

"Want me to try video-calling him?" asked Blue Toad.

"I'm sure written messages will do," said Nathan.

"Okay." The two Toads fell silent as they composed their messages.

"Is is just me?" Toad asked finally, "or has this computer gone crazy?"

"What's wrong?" asked Nathan.

"My messages aren't sending," said Toad. "I keep pressing 'Send', and I get an error which says, 'Not sent'."

"The same things happening with me, too," said Blue Toad. "Either Luigi's phone is off or…"

"Or someone doesn't want you to contact him," said Nathan.

"Oh, no…" gasped Toad.

"Boos!" Both Toads shouted in unison.

The "default user" icon appeared on the screen, and then King Boo's leering face filled the shot.

And then he laughed.

"Don't worry about Luigi," said King Boo. "He's on his way up here. The two of us are gonna have a long-overdue _chat_."

"Up where?" asked Blue Toad. "The roof?"

"Bingo," smirked King Boo.

"Where's the Professor?" growled Toad. "What have you done with him?"

"Oh, we're giving him what he deserves as we speak," King Boo replied. "He's been a thorn in our side for the last time. But I wonder—aren't you forgetting someone?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Nathan.

"You've been so focused on your beloved Princess and those two plumbers," King Boo explained, "but perhaps you've let another traveling companion slip under your radar. Another Toad—if I'm not mistaken."

Toad's face paled.

"Ah, that rings a bell, doesn't it?" hissed King Boo. "Well—his very survival is _heavily_ dependent on you."

"What more do you want from us?" Blue Toad demanded of him. "What more do you want?"

Nathan heard something plop onto the floor. Blue Toad looked down, and then he slid off his chair, emerging with a box in his hand.

"It's—'Cards Against Humanity'," he said.

Nathan saw a similar box be placed beside the laptop. "I have one, too," he said.

"So do I," said Toad, holding up a third box.

King Boo licked out his tongue. "All I ask is that you just play your game and let us go about our business unperturbed," he said. "For every attempt you make to contact Luigi or the Professor, one of you will die. No pressure."

He giggled before his chat window reverted to the "default user" icon.

"Well," Nathan said after a few minutes of silence. "You heard the guy. Let's just—play a game and hope that we'll hear back from Gadd or Luigi—or both. Anything to keep us sane through all of this."

"Uh—okay," said Toad. "Nathan, do you wanna go first?"

"S-sure," replied Nathan, opening his box of cards and selecting one. "Er—I have to take my blank to a blank, so I'll see you blank."

"Oh. Well." Blue Toad cleared his throat. "I have to take my salamander to an obstetrician, so I'll see you Tuesday."

"I have to take my ostrich to a masseuse, so I'll see you Friday," said Toad.

"I like it," said Nathan. "I like that one."

"I'll go next, I guess," said Toad. "All I want for Christmas is blank."

"All I want for Christmas is—Chuck Norris," said Blue Toad.

"Really?" asked Nathan.

"What? He's a legend!" balked Blue Toad.

Everyone laughed softly.

"In that case," said Nathan. "All I want for Christmas is—a green, gooey doppelganger."

"Uh—Blue Toad wins," said Toad.

"Yay!" cheered Blue Toad. "My turn!"

He selected a card. "A romantic, candlelit dinner would be incomplete without blank."

Nathan pursed his lips. "A romantic, candlelit dinner would be incomplete without someone playing 'Despacito'."

"Ah, yes. The most romantic song of the 2010s," sighed Blue Toad.

"Mmhm," said Toad. "A romantic, candlelit dinner would be incomplete without—my gigantic c—k!"

"Oh, come on!" Nathan howled with laughter.

"I'm sorry, but I'm gonna go with Nathan," said Blue Toad in between giggles. "'Despacito' for the win!"

"Aw—thanks, man," chuckled Nathan.

Suddenly, a LiveLeak video popped up onto Nathan's screen, showing Hellen still engaged in an—act of passion—with the other woman, their sweaty bodies thrashing ardently on the bed. Based on the two Toads' facial expressions, they could see the video, too, and they didn't know whether to be mildly grossed out or aroused, either. Just like with the YouTube video, the other woman's face remained cleverly obscured.

"Hey, genius—we're trying to play here!" snapped Toad. "Hello?"

Cackling.

"Dude—stop making us look at p—n!" cried Nathan. Off of the gazes of everyone else in the lounge, he meekly said, "Sorry."

He tried to exit out of the video but couldn't; he tried to minimize the screen, also without success. Nor could he turn down or mute the volume.

"Look, buddy—I don't think your fan club president will appreciate an audience," said Nathan.

_You seem entirely certain. But the Toads don't seem to mind._

And indeed, Toad and Blue Toad's faces were fire-engine red, and they were sweating and fidgeting uncomfortably in their seats.

_And neither do you._

Nathan knew that King Boo was right, for that familiar feeling was getting increasingly harder to ignore.

"Are you kidding? I'm in public," he hissed.

_I'm sure you'll wing something._

He heard Blue Toad groan.

"Guys? You guys," said Nathan. "I'm sure we can all try to ignore that and continue our game."

"Uh—I guess you're right," said Blue Toad.

_Good luck. 3:D_

"All right," said Nathan, taking another card. "The results of a new study found that there is a direct link between blank and blank."

Blue Toad stared, goggle-eyed, before snapping himself back to reality. "Um—the results of a new study found that there is a direct link between spaghetti and dwarfism."

"The results of a new study found that there is a direct link between dabbing and spinach," said Toad.

"I guess—I'll go with Toad's," said Nathan.

The video's volume had steadily increased throughout this exchange.

"Benedict Cumberbatch was blank all along," said Toad.

"Benedict Cumberbatch was Twilight Sparkle all along," said Blue Toad.

"Benedict Cumberbatch was Goku all along," said Nathan.

"Nathan. Definitely Nathan," chuckled Toad. "Your turn, Blue Toad."

"Elon Musk showed off his new blank," said Blue Toad.

"Elon Musk showed off his new jockstrap," said Nathan.

"Elon Musk showed off his new miniskirt," said Toad.

"Uh—I can't decide," said Blue Toad. "So—tie, I guess. Let's do a tiebreaker." He picked another card. "It's dangerous to go alone! Take blank!"

"It's dangerous to go alone! Take Gooigi!" said Toad.

"It's dangerous to go alone! Take…" Nathan rolled his eyes. "My gigantic c—k!"

"Are you serious!" Both Toads fell off their chairs, rolling with laughter on the floor.

"Eh—I'm bored with this game," said Nathan, throwing down his cards. "Let's play a new game."

He opened Google Chrome and searched for a good virus removal software. The racy video continued to play in the background, the steamy sounds harder than ever to ignore. However, Nathan wasted no time finding the software he was looking for, copying the download link and pasting it in an email message.

"Gents, check your inboxes," Nathan said to the two Toads.

_What are you up to now, Nate?_ King Boo wanted to know.

"Why—I just want to play this awesome new game," Nathan said confidently. "You like games, yes? You seem to enjoy games, yes? So, how about we play? This is the perfect game for you, _Your Highness_."

"I got your email, Nate!" Toad said excitedly.

"Me, too!" Blue Toad chimed in.

"All right—click on the link I sent."

The Toads obeyed, Nathan following suit. Then, the trio watched as the program commenced to scan all of the files on their respective computers.

_If you want Yellow Toad to live,_ typed King Boo, _then you'd better stop this right now._

"Does anyone have flags yet?" asked Nathan. "Let's all wait until we have flags. There should be more than one flag."

"Yeah, mine's flagging," said Blue Toad.

"So's mine," smiled Toad.

_You all have 45 seconds to stop this,_ warned King Boo.

A timer appeared on the bottom right of Nathan's screen, which began to count down from 45 seconds.

"Now, as soon as the scan is finished, trash all of the flagged files," instructed Nathan. "Then, open your recycle bin and empty it. Quickly now!"

"Mine's done!" Toad sang out.

"Mine's done, too!" Blue Toad sang out.

"Good. Good. Now trash all of them," said Nathan.

The two Toads did as they were bidden.

"Er—my recycling bin is almost full, so it's taking a long time," said Blue Toad.

"That's fine—I'm dealing with the same problem," said Nathan.

"Okay, finished!" said Toad.

"I'm getting the stupid beach ball of death!" Blue Toad exclaimed.

The timer started flashing red as King Boo laughed evilly.

"Oh, my God—can this thing _please_ go faster?!" shrieked Blue Toad.

"Hey—it's gonna be cool," Nathan assured him. "It's gonna be okay, I promise."

He turned as his own recycle bin finished emptying.

"Nathan, are you good?" asked Toad.

"Yeah. We're just waiting on Blue Toad."

Just as the timer reached one second, Blue Toad exclaimed, "All right, I'm done!"

The three waited in suspense as the timer hit zero.

"Did it work?" asked Blue Toad.

Both the LiveLeak video and King Boo's video feed disappeared.

Nathan sighed in relief. The Toads cheered.

"[Bleep] you, KB," said Nathan. "Suck on that, d—head!"

"Thank you, Nate," the Toads said in unison.

"My pleasure, of course," said Nathan.

"Great," said Blue Toad. "All that's left to do now is to find out what happened to Peach, and also try to track down Professor Gadd and Luigi."

"Sit tight," Nathan told them. "I'm gonna get some help."

He logged onto ChatRoulette, accepted their policy and confirmed that he was over 18 years old. Then, he waited for someone to join the chat room.

A purple-spotted Toad soon appeared. "Hello?" he spoke.

"Hi, can you hear me?" asked Nathan.

"Loud and clear."

"Oh, thank goodness," breathed Nathan. "I'm glad they matched you with me. Something—something's happened."

"My God—you look like you've been put through the wringer," said the Toad. "Is everything okay?"

"No," said Nathan. "That's why I'm on here. Maybe—you can help."

"What's going on?"

"I bring extremely grave news for the Mushroom Kingdom," Nathan said intently. "Mario—your hero—is dead."

"What?"

"King Boo lured him, along with Luigi, Princess Peach and three Toad retainers, into a trap. The invitation to the Last Resort—it was a lure. Luigi managed to evade capture and has spent the night fighting his way to the top of the hotel. But then—King Boo decided to torture him…"

"Oh, my God…"

"He had some Boos track down his g—his fiancée—in Sarasaland," Nathan went on. "And then he tried to make Luigi—choose."

"Between Daisy and Mario?" balked Purple Toad.

Nathan nodded. "Luigi stood up to King Boo, though; he refused to be controlled by that monster. So he killed them both. The Boos impaled Daisy with multiple darts, and Mario, who'd been trapped in a portrait, had gallons of corrosive acid poured all over him."

Purple Toad looked ill.

"I'm so sorry to tell you this. If there are any contingency plans regarding Mario's death, then now would be a good time to enact them."

"Only the Princess or Toadsworth has the power to enact a contingency procedure," said Purple Toad. "Is there news on anyone else?"

"I'm currently Skyping with two of the Toad retainers. One of them has been taken to my house, the other is still in the hotel, at a restaurant called the Spectral Catch. Luigi is on his way to the rooftop to confront King Boo and to presumably avenge the demises of his brother and his fiancée. Yellow Toad and Princess Peach are currently unaccounted for."

"Wait a minute—Daisy's his fiancée now? Since when?"

Nathan sighed. "He was gonna propose to her."

"Oh, no. Poor Luigi. It'll take a while for this tragic news to reach Toadsworth, but is there anything else I can do?"

"Yeah. King Boo has also spent the night attacking me and my friends because we're Luigi's fans," said Nathan. "He practically eviscerated my fiancée and unborn child, along with her mother, Princess Éclair of the Waffle Kingdom, and quite possibly her entire royal court. One friend was turned into a mural, another was set up to be gunned down by the police, a third friend was forced to watch her fiancée, sister and niece die before being killed herself and a fourth was literally imprisoned in cyberspace. Not only that, he's ordered all of Luigi's fans and Smash mains to be trapped in portraits for all eternity. And finally, he's targeted Professor Elvin Gadd, Luigi's mentor."

"Is he also with you?"

"He was. But then King Boo found his high school sweetheart, Virginia, who was elderly, infirm and hospitalized, and forced him to free every ghost and Boo he captured by using her as collateral, just like he's used Luigi as collateral to make us play by his rules. Professor Gadd agreed to his demands in exchange for Virginia's life—only for King Boo to have her killed anyway. After that, King Boo sought to discredit the professor by sending lewd materials to his computer and making it look like he had them all along—and then his Skype feed cut out. The Toads and I have attempted to reconnect with him, but so far—no dice. Here—here's the Last Resort's address." He typed in the address he'd obtained earlier. "You gotta call the police or someone who can help—pronto!"

Purple Toad nodded, grabbed his phone and dialed 9-1-1.

"Yes, hi," he spoke to the operator. "I'm located in Toad Town, and there's a young man on the Internet who says that King Boo is wreaking havoc. He's had several people killed and countless others held captive because they're associated with Luigi. I'm sorry to say that Mario and Princess Daisy are among the fatalities."

Nathan checked back in with the two Toads. "Someone's calling the authorities right now," he said soothingly.

"Yes, Luigi's still alive," Purple Toad was saying, "but he needs assistance right away. His current location is…" He gave the address Nathan provided. "I take it that your average response time is between 10 and 15 minutes. We're gonna need you to do better than that."

"Are they coming?" asked Nathan.

Purple Toad nodded. "They're on their way now."

"Thank you!"

"God be with us," said Purple Toad before Nathan closed ChatRoulette.

"The cavalry is on their way," Nathan reported. "It's almost over, all right? It's almost over."

"God bless you, Nathan," gasped Toad. "God bless you!"

Blue Toad nodded vigorously. "Let's hope they reach the Princess before…"

His and Toad's feeds froze.

"Oh, no," gasped Nathan. "Oh, please, no!"

King Boo's feed reappeared on the screen as the two Toads' feeds abruptly disconnected.

_Nathan, you just made the worst mistake of your sorry excuse for a life, _typed King Boo.

Another video feed appeared, showing the moon hanging in a star-saturated sky. The back of Nathan's throat froze as the camera panned down to reveal—Yellow Toad.

"Oh, my God," he rasped out. "Yellow Toad—can you hear me?!"

_Unfortunately not. 3:D_

Yellow Toad was bruised up, just like his fellow retainers, dried blood crusted all over his nose and mouth. He screamed and struggled against the grip of two Boos who dangled him over a building's ledge.

_That's the Last Resort's roof,_ thought Nathan.

"Don't do it," he beseeched. "I'm begging you—don't do it! I'll do anything!"

_You should've thought of that earlier,_ typed King Boo. _The rules were simple—and you chose to break them. There's nobody to blame for this but yourself._

"Take _me_ for a hostage!" cried Nathan, "but at least let the others go! Please!"

_Too late_, typed King Boo. _EIGHTEEN YEARS too late._

Cackling, the two Boos callously hurled Yellow Toad from the top of the Last Resort. The poor fellow screamed and flailed his limbs as he tumbled helplessly through space. Nathan gripped the edges of his chair, heart pounding furiously, wishing he was anywhere but here, wishing he was at least in a position to help. But there was nothing he could do. He was trapped on a roller coaster headed for the bowels of Hell, a roller coaster over which he had no control.

Yellow Toad hit the ground with a sickening _splat_, and Nathan felt bile rise in his throat. Blood, gore and brain matter were splattered all over the pavement. The little toadstool's body was literally shattered beyond repair, the impact of his fall having separated his hands and feet and sent them skittering a few inches away. His once-proud mushroom cap was pulverized open, pieces of it floating in the growing lake of claret red.

"N-no," he whimpered.

_His blood is on your hands, Nathan_, typed King Boo. _I hope you remember that._

Nathan clutched his abdomen, dry-heaving.

_Oh, come on. We aren't done yet. 3:D_

Toad's feed came back on, showing some Boos holding him down while another shoved a hair straightener down his throat—Vicky's hair straightener! This was another way the Boos were desecrating Nathan's beloved, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

Then, Blue Toad's feed came back on, and he was in a worse state than his fellow retainers. Bound to a bed, sweating and breathing heavily, a power drill whirring in the background. The camera panned away, and the Blue Toad screamed in fear and agony, blood spattering onto the wall.

_Red Toad, Blue Toad and Yellow Toad—game over. 3:D_

Nathan lunged for the nearest trash can and threw up.

To add insult to injury, the PA system crackled to life, announcing that his flight had been delayed for another hour.

Once his stomach was emptied, Nathan wiped his mouth and stumbled back to the laptop, where King Boo grinned at him like a child on his birthday.

"I'd stay and chat with you longer," he said, "but it's date night. And _my_ date has arrived." He gave Nathan a mocking half-salute before his screen reverted to the default user icon.

Nathan sat there, stupefied. "Why is this happening?" he asked nobody in particular. "Why?"

He received a notification that Professor Gadd was now sharing his screen with him. A window popped up to show a blank Microsoft Word document.

"Professor?" uttered Nathan. "What are you doing, Professor?"

As if in answer, words began appearing on the document, very _unsettling_ words—

_To Whom It May Concern,_

_ It's time for me to face facts—I am a fraud and a dirty old man. I've kept this a secret my whole life._

_ I did terrible things to keep up this façade, and tonight my deception and lies got a bunch of innocent people killed._

_ I can't live with the guilt._

_ You'll find the evidence in a file labeled "E. Gadd's Stash"._

_ I'm sorry._

_Sincerely,_

_Professor Elvin Gadd_

Klaxons sounded in Nathan's head as he read the note once—twice—thrice. He knew at once that the Boos were behind this.

"What did you do?" he asked. "_What did you do?!_"

King Boo responded by sending a .jpeg attachment.

Reluctantly, Nathan clicked on it—and almost fainted.

Professor Elvin Gadd lay on the floor of his lab, his clothes disheveled and his glasses askew, thick froth seeping from the corners of his mouth, his eyes wide open, his skin pale. A beaker lay centimeters from his outstretched hand, allowing Nathan to deduce that the Boos had either made Gadd drink its contents or forced it down his throat.

Either way, a grand total of six important people in Luigi's life were now dead by the Boos' hands. Now, he was truly alone.

And so was Nathan.

"Please, God," he whispered. "Help me. Help me. Help me…"

**Please R&R.**


	15. Luigi's Last Stand

**Content warning for violence and disturbing content!**

**November 1, 2019**

**2:00 a.m.**

The Crown Prince of the Easton Kingdom was now a numb, mechanical, psychologically traumatized wreck. He moved almost entirely on autopilot, to the bar to order more drinks and back to the laptop, staring at the image of himself, King Boo's feed right next to him. For the life of him, he didn't know what to do or who to call. Anyone who tried to help could be subjected to the Boos' wrath, or worse, revealed to be mere illusions to trick him.

Even so, Nathan willed his mind to break through the fog. "Okay," he said to himself. "Okay. We gotta get organized…"

He jumped as the PA system crackled to life, announcing that his flight had been delayed for yet another hour.

"Just my luck," he murmured. "What if it wound up cancelled altogether—wouldn't that be the cherry on this sundae?"

He opened up Messenger and scrolled down the list of contacts. Most of them were probably asleep at this hour—if the Boos hadn't managed to get them, that is. His cursor hovered over Luigi's name, and a deep sigh escaped him. At this point, he had no other options. It was time for him to swallow his pride and make one final outreach to the man in green.

The more he thought on it, however, the more he was convinced that Luigi had deliberately pushed him away in a desperate effort to protect him from King Boo.

"What's the sense in that?" he asked. "That monster already hurt me anyway."

He clicked on Luigi's name and poised his fingers over the keyboard, wondering what to write.

_I don't want to fight with you, Luigi._

He erased that.

_Luigi, I'm sorry._

He erased that, too.

_I know you're hurting, but you can't push me away like this. The only way to beat this menace is to stick together._

He clicked "Send".

The message appeared on the dialogue box—and then disappeared.

"Huh?"

Nathan tried resending the message thrice, with the same result. Then, the entire application froze up on him before crashing.

Just as he moved the cursor over the Messenger icon to relaunch the program, it disappeared from the screen.

"What the…?"

Messenger then began magically uninstalling itself from the laptop.

"Hey—stop that," said Nathan, trying to exit out of the uninstallation wizard. His cursor rebuffed him at every turn.

After Messenger was uninstalled, the laptop automatically disconnected from the Internet, causing him to be booted from the chat room.

King Boo laughed.

Frustrated, Nathan closed the laptop and ordered another drink before crumpling into a chair, trying his best not to break down crying.

His phone vibrated, making him jump. Pulling out the phone, he discovered that it was only a reminder for some function he could hardly remember now. Relieved, Nathan slumped back in the chair and opened his Messenger app, which was still functioning properly.

_Please, don't hate me, Luigi_, he typed before sending the message.

All he could do now was sip his drink and pray to any deity who could hear him for a miracle.

His prayer wasn't answered.

The TVs in the lounge area displayed a "Breaking News" banner, and everyone in the airport dropped what they were doing to crowd around them.

"Thank you for joining us," said the anchor. "I'm Tim Bridges. The Mushroom Kingdom is holding its breath as a major crisis continues to unfold. Let's go to Kimberly Duncan for more information."

The TVs then showed an image of the Last Resort, where chaos abounded. Police barriers had been put up, red and blue lights flashed, sirens wailed, and many first responders crowded the scene. A raven-haired reporter stood in the center of it all, microphone in hand as more representatives of the press set up their equipment.

"Thank you, Tim," said the reporter, Kim. "Approximately 45 minutes ago, the authorities were called to this hotel, known as the Last Resort, and came across this startling sight." The camera zoomed in toward the hotel's rooftop, where the sounds of a heated battle were just barely audible. "A young man, fighting for his life against the Master of Illusions himself—King Boo."

Everyone in the airport began to whisper among themselves.

"All attempts so far to assist this young man have been thwarted by King Boo's minions," Kim went on.

"We're now going to show you the footage of these attempts," said Tim, "but I must warn you—this video may be difficult to watch."

In the video, armed and armored officers rushed toward the Last Resort, only for the Boos to pounce on them in droves. The camera jittered and swung about wildly, offering glimpses of responding officers being shoved into portraits of many shapes and sizes.

"That won't do anything," said one patron seated near Nathan, referring to the officers' weapons.

"Compounding the danger are the appearances of more ghosts," said Kim. "It is unknown at this time whether these ghosts are local to this area. However, authorities have warned that these ghosts are powerful and extremely dangerous."

More recorded footage played of the cavalry coming under attack by slim, blue ghosts, red, boxy ghosts, purple, lanky ghosts and gold, thin ghosts. Officers shouted desperately as the ghosts maniacally laughed.

"Do you have any information about the man on the rooftop?" asked Tim.

Kim nodded. "The young man has been identified as Luigi Mario, the younger twin brother of the Mushroom Kingdom's protector, Mario 'Jumpman' Mario."

"Do you think that Mario may be imprisoned somewhere in the hotel?"

"Earlier reports confirm that Mario, along with three Toad retainers, have been killed by the Boos. Princess Peach remains missing, and efforts are being made to locate her. Back to you, Tim."

"Thank you, Kim. We will continue to keep you updated on this developing situation. In the meantime, all residents of the Mushroom Kingdom are encouraged to stay in their homes and tune in to their local TV and radio outlets."

The situation began impacting the airport, as well, causing further delays and cancellations of outgoing flights. All of the patrons became antsy, contacting their friends and loved ones to pass on the harrowing news.

Nathan's head fell into his hands.

"We'll now take you back to the scene with our helicopter team," said Tim. "What can you tell us?"

Now, they were all looking at an aerial view of the Last Resort. The helicopter moved closer and closer to the rooftop, and there, Nathan could finally see the two people (well, one person and one tyrannical Boo) on top.

"We're just a few yards away now, Tim," said the helicopter pilot, "and let me tell you—we've never seen something like this before. Viewers at home can notice on their screens that Luigi is wearing something on his back—it looks like the Poltergust G-00, which he wields in the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate tournament. But can it stand up to the might of King Boo? Only time will tell."

A lump rose in Nathan's throat as he watched Luigi attempting to dodge King Boo's attacks and waiting for an opening. He could also see Polterpup up there, protecting, aiding and encouraging his master.

"Uh—Tim, are you seeing this?" asked the helicopter pilot. "There appears to be a ghost dog trying to help Luigi. And over there—is a lime green clone of him." Sure enough, there was Gooigi, doing his best to distract King Boo in the hopes that Luigi could get the drop on him.

"I think that's Luigi's gooey doppelganger, Gooigi," said the pilot. "As you know, Professor Elvin Gadd created Gooigi from ectoplasm and coffee just one year ago, and sent him into the past for a training exercise. Tim—there's reason to believe that the Professor could also be inside the Last Resort."

Nathan, however, wasn't listening to the pilot or the anchor anymore. He stared hard at the image of Luigi on the screen, Polterpup and Gooigi by his side, leveling the Poltergust G-00 at his mortal enemy. If the numerous bruises, slashes and burns on his body didn't frighten Nathan, then the look of scorn and loathing on the plumber's face certainly did. Never in his life did he ever see Luigi look at someone like that before. His facial expression during the 2014 Mario Kart tournament was tame compared to this!

King Boo, meanwhile, had tossed some sort of projectile at Luigi—the camera was too far away for Nathan and the others to get a good look at it. But Luigi caught the object in his Poltergust and threw it right back at King Boo, sending him reeling. Then, he grabbed King Boo into the suction and heaved him overhead with a grunt, slamming him hard into the floor as everyone cheered.

"[Bleep] him up, Luigi!" crowed Nathan.

Luigi appeared inclined to oblige, slamming King Boo against the ground again and again and again. The helicopter pilot gave a hearty laugh.

"He's starting to gain a foothold in this brutal battle," he said, "just when all hope seemed to be lost!"

After one last slam, King Boo broke free, and it all began again, the tyrant using his magical gem to summon all sorts of things to weaponize. But Luigi, in his usual fashion, always figured out a way to use those weapons against King Boo. Then, while the King was stunned, he'd leap into action with a battle cry, slamming his foe this way and that with all his might. Sometimes, Gooigi and Polterpup would help slam King Boo around, but Luigi was handling the weight pretty well. Hate was a rather potent emotion, after all.

The news reports continuously cross-cut from the helicopter to Kim on the ground and to Tim in the anchor room. Nathan dug his nails into his palms and continued to watch. While Luigi had the upper hand over King Boo at the moment, the situation on the ground was growing more dire, more Boos attacking as Kim and her crew were hastened to safety.

"I'm afraid we've received some tragic news," said Kim. "Elvin Gadd's body was found in a laboratory several yards away from the Last Resort. The cause of death was an apparent suicide."

Almost everyone in the airport swore at the news.

"Lewd pictures and videos were also found on his computer, along with evidence suggesting that his research over the past 78 years had been fabricated."

"Well—that is certainly a huge development, Kim," said Tim. "Do you think the Boos framed him?"

"We will find out more once the police are done examining the scene," said Kim.

_Should I call the station and tell them that the professor was, in fact, framed?_ Nathan asked himself. _Will they even believe me?_

He whipped out his cell phone and dialed the number displayed on the screen before retreating to a quieter part of the lounge.

After giving his name and location, he was soon connected to the news station.

"Hello?" asked Tim's voice. "Nathan, can you hear me?"

"Yeah," replied Nathan. "I'm in an airport in Sarasaland, and I'm watching the action right now on a TV in the lounge. The reason I'm calling is because—I'm one of Luigi's fans, and I main him in Smash."

"I see."

"Because of that, King Boo has attacked me, several of my friends, and even my pregnant fiancée. We were all chatting on Skype earlier, and he seemed to have hijacked our chat room. He had his minions pick off my friends one-by-one and then made me watch while he tormented Luigi."

"Okay."

"Luigi and I were communicating via Messenger, and after he escaped the initial trap, he contacted me and told me about it. My friends and I tried to aid him, which is another reason why King Boo went after us. Professor Gadd joined our chat in an effort to keep us updated on Luigi's situation. Unfortunately, the Boos remained one step ahead of us. They even took control of my laptop at one point!" He took a deep breath. "Luigi eventually joined the Skype chat, and then the Boos—killed his brother and his fiancée in front of him, all because he wouldn't choose between the two. Then, Gadd told me that they were uploading files onto his computer—the lewd materials—before being disconnected. After that, they threw one Toad retainer to his death and killed the other two in rather gruesome manners. That's when they sent me the suicide note and a picture of Gadd. He didn't kill himself. The Boos made him drink a poisonous substance from his lab and made it look like a suicide."

"Wow—are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Not only that, the Boos are hunting down every Luigi main they can find and stuffing _them_ into portraits! If Luigi doesn't stop their King in time, then a disaster is sure to happen!"

"You said you were at the airport. Surely, this situation is affecting air travel?"

"It is. Several flights have been delayed, and several more are being cancelled altogether. Mine could be next. I hoped I could fly out to try and help Luigi, but—I probably won't be able to!"

"I wish you safe travels then, Nathan."

"Thanks. May God help us all," said Nathan before hanging up.

He returned to the bar and ordered yet another drink.

And so—it went on like this. The station taking calls from witnesses and concerned citizens. Nathan following along on the TV and the station's official website for updates. The news helicopter, buzzing around the Last Resort and offering exclusive views of the pulse-pounding fight. Kim and her crew on the ground, continuing to dodge Boos and other ghosts. Police and other first responders, attempting to enter the building, only to get cut down or turned into paintings by the dozen. Whatever hope they were clinging onto was fading fast.

Nathan joined the rest of the airline passengers in praying fervently. Not just praying for Luigi to once again overcome his tormentor, but for the safety and the future of the Mushroom Kingdom. It was time to let enough be enough.

Unfortunately, tonight just wasn't the night for the good guys.

Physically and emotionally exhausted, Nathan had dozed off in the interim, only for the TV to jolt him awake. The first thing he saw was that the action was focused back on the roof. The second thing he saw was that Luigi was in _very_ bad shape, arm wrapped around his midsection, limping, tears cleansing the blood and dirt from his battered face. The third thing he saw was King Boo, glaring ominously at the helicopter, the gem on his crown beginning to glow.

"Oh, no…" he whispered.

Frantically, the pilot shouted for his crew to hold on as he banked the helicopter away. But alas, he was seconds too late. A bright blast of energy struck the helicopter, sending it careening out of control. Then, the screen went black; only the sounds of screaming and the pilot radioing for help remained. Finally, a crash, and then—silence.

Tim's face was ashen as he tried and failed to contact the helicopter pilot.

"Kim?" he asked. "Can you see what happened?"

Kim's face was grave. "Seconds ago, we all saw a purple beam strike the helicopter, and it crashed several miles away from us. Casualties and fatalities are unknown at this point, but there's a chance that our long-time pilot has been seriously injured or worse." She swallowed. "It's hard to believe what's happening." She winced at the sound of a low, muffled _boom_. "The brutality of it all—I—I don't know if we can take anymore."

"Is there any word on the Princess?" asked Tim.

"Still no word," sighed Kim. "I'm afraid—that this could be the end of the Mushroom Kingdom as we know it."

"No!" Nathan heard somebody exclaim.

Kim started to say something else, only for Tim to interrupt her.

"Kim—watch out!" he exclaimed.

Kim whirled as a swarm of cackling Boos pounced on her and the rest of her crew. More screams filled the air, and then the feed went black.

"Kim? Kim? Are you still with us?" asked Tim.

No answer.

"We will try to get back in touch with her…" Tim started to say, only to jump and jerk his head around.

He swiveled back to face his audience with a look illustrating the urgency of the situation. "I'm afraid something is happening…"

Abruptly, the screen cut to the color-bar test pattern, accompanied by a droning, beep.

An airline employee arrived to change the channel, only for the other channels to have static. Not just any static—but pink and purple static.

Nathan tried to get updates from the websites of his local news stations, only to wind up with error pages instead. Tears of frustration worried at the corners of his eyes. This was _definitely_ the Boos' doing! They wished to torture the entire Mushroom Kingdom—perhaps the world—by preventing information from coming in or going out and quashing Luigi's hopes of aid. He was truly alone with a powerful individual and his subjects, all of who wanted his blood.

He looked up just as another airline employee announced that all remaining flights had been cancelled. The staff handed out vouchers to the long-suffering passengers, who gathered their luggage and filed out of the airport.

Nathan sighed as he walked out into the night and mounted his bike. At this point, his only option was to head home and wait out the danger.

He fastened his helmet, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards before pedaling off, the silence and emptiness offering no comfort at all.

_You have to be strong, Luigi. The world's depending on you…_

**Please R&R. The next chapter will be the finale.**


	16. Good Night

**If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven't been paying attention.**

**November 1, 2019**

**4:15 a.m.**

The echo of police sirens greeted Nathan as he continued his journey homeward, and he dutifully pulled aside as a tight formation of cruisers sped past. He guessed that they were en route to the Sarasaland Royal Palace, as they'd no doubt received news of Princess Daisy's tragic fate. Whether or not they'd be of any real help at this point was debatable.

BooGene cackled in his ear.

Nathan cursed and brought his bike to a halt. "Don't startle me like that!" he hissed.

"Apologies," said BooGene. "Just wondering if you want to know how your main is doing."

"Right now, I gotta keep my eyes on the road," said Nathan, resuming his trek, "and frankly, part of me doesn't want to know anymore. Last I checked, it didn't look good."

"Not for you," said Booverly, "but absolutely stellar for our King—who's also going to be _your_ King _very_ soon."

"That's right," laughed BooGene. "After he's done with Luigi, our King's coming for the entire Mushroom Kingdom, and then for Sarasaland, and then—the whole world! Whereupon he'll be known as—Emperor Boo."

"Overlord Boo is more fitting," Nathan said bitterly.

"Fear not," said BooGene. "You'll get used to him eventually."

Nathan flinched in disgust as BooGene licked up the side of his face.

"Whether Luigi wins or loses," said Nathan. "Your King will _never_ be my King."

Nathan arrived at his house, parked his bike and cautiously entered.

There were signs of a brief struggle in the living room, and Nathan deduced that the Boos had dragged Toad into the bathroom before ending his game. Hesitating for a moment, he ventured toward the bathroom and saw the Mushroom Retainer, limp on the floor, Vicky's hair straightener still in his mouth. Sadly, Nathan moved to pull out the hair straightener but then paused, knowing that doing so would get his fingerprints on it and make him look like _he_ was the culprit. He bowed his head, crossed himself and said a short prayer over Toad's body before returning to his living room.

There, Nathan booted up his laptop and signed back into his Spotify account. More messages from various Boos popped up, and Nathan ignored them. He opened Messenger, selected his conversation with Luigi and typed, _When you get out of this, I'll make it up to you. I promise._

Then, he put on some music, went into the kitchen and fixed a snack. He ate while seated before the laptop, staring at the screen, waiting for something. Anything.

Nathan finished the snack and downed a glass of water. He logged onto YouTube and found some funny videos to watch, hoping to give his racing mind something to feed on.

But it was no good. It was impossible for those videos to entertain Nathan, with both Luigi's and Peach's fates still up in the air. The hoping and waiting was driving him mad. Perhaps it had driven him mad already.

The minutes dragged by. An unnerving chill crept into the room. There was complete silence save for Boos cackling—and not just BooGene and Booverly. More Boos had entered Nathan's house, watching him wait. Watching him slowly lose it. He could feel their breath against the back of his neck; he could feel their tongues brushing against his skin. A plethora of Boos were now gathered around him, savoring every moment of despair and desperation.

Nathan exited YouTube and leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his hair and staring at the ceiling.

He heard a notification chime. The moment was broken.

Nathan pulled up the Messenger chat window, and almost everything in his body froze when he saw the cryptic message.

**You are too late.**

_What are you talking about?_

**I think you know, Nathan. Did you actually believe that he'd be a match for me?**

Nathan felt his intestines twist.

The Boos cackled.

**Must be a real bummer, knowing that your last interaction was acrimonious.**

"No—please…"

**That the last thing you ever said to him was that you wished you mained someone other than him.**

"You sick [bleep]. You're lying," growled Nathan. "Luigi's not dead. You're lying!"

**Am I? 3:D**

The "incoming video call" jingle sounded. Feeling nauseous and shaking in every limb, Nathan clicked "Answer".

King Boo leered at him then, an expression of morbid satisfaction and accomplishment on his features.

"Hello, Nathan," he sneered. "Expecting someone else?"

"What have you done?" Nathan asked in a gasping voice.

"The one thing I'd wanted to do for the past eighteen years," King Boo replied.

Nathan was sweating now.

"It was neither quick nor painless," King Boo went on. "I wanted him to know his time was up. I wanted to see his eyes as he came to the realization that he failed. And I did. It was _delicious_." He laughed, and his brethren laughed with him.

"Oh—I guess you'll want to see him now and say your final goodbyes." He chuckled. "How inconsiderate of me." He floated over to another part of the rooftop and swiveled the camera around.

And Nathan screamed.

There lay Luigi, sprawled on the ground, glassy eyes wide open, blood streaming out of his likewise-open mouth. More blood poured out of the numerous deep gashes in his body and pooled beneath him. What looked like a spear—or a sword—was impaled through his navel, pinning him to the rooftop like King Boo's version of a prized butterfly.

"If it makes it any better—he fought me tooth-and-nail the whole way," King Boo said in a faux-comforting tone. "Getting him to stay down was a difficult task—yet here I am, victorious."

"Oh, my God," rasped Nathan. "Oh, my God. I…" He turned away and threw up into a trash bin.

He breathed raggedly. "I'm s-sorry, Luigi. I'm so sorry—I'm so sorry!" He retched again, and then he exploded in regretful sobs.

King Boo sighed. "If you and your friends had played by the rules—then he'd still be here," he said. "But such is life. Now—the time has come for me to take my place as supreme ruler of all that crawls upon the earth and swims in the sea!" He cackled.

Nathan stared at him, tears flooding his face. "Why are you doing this?" he asked in a tiny voice. "Why?"

"Why not?" grinned King Boo.

The camera lingered a while over Luigi's impaled and bloodied form before the call ended.

Nathan slumped backward, utterly defeated. The worst had come to pass—the entire world was now at King Boo's mercy.

An incoming Skype call brought him out of his funk.

Nathan accepted the call, causing Skype to automatically open.

The video feed showed a room bathed in bright pink light. A woman lay in a king bed, partially covered by a sheet, her face masked by messy golden hair.

Was this the same woman from that video?

The top left of Nathan's screen displayed a poll: _Should Nathan live?_ As the voting commenced, a timer counted down from three and a half minutes.

And then Nathan began to laugh.

He laughed and he laughed, finding some twisted humor over the fact that these adorable, black-hearted ghosts were now deciding whether he should live or die. He laughed at the fact that all of his efforts ultimately amounted to nothing. He laughed because—he was at his wit's end.

The woman in the video feed slowly sat up in the bed, holding the bedsheet over her body. A pink sheer nightie hung over the foot of the bed, and the woman reached over and grabbed it. She pulled on the nightie and cautiously slid out of bed before turning toward the camera and pushing her hair out of her face.

It was Princess Peach!

Nathan's laughter quieted as he and Peach locked eyes. And then Peach stepped daintily toward the room's computer, smoothing the back of her nightie before taking a seat.

"Hello?" she softy asked, her dulcet voice a bit raspy. "Can you hear me?"

Nathan wiped his tears. "Yes, Your Grace."

Peach smiled sadly. "You must be Nathan."

"I am."

"Luigi told me about you," said Peach. "He's—he's coming, right?"

Nathan nodded vigorously. "I just checked up on him. He says he's minutes away. But—he needs to free Mario first. You know what they say—bros before, well, you know."

"Oh, Nathan," sighed Peach. "I know you didn't sign on for this."

"Neither did you," said Nathan, "but everything's gonna be okay. Luigi's gonna come with his vacuum, and he's gonna lay the smackdown on King Boo and make everything all right."

"Tell him—I'm in Hellen's room," said Peach. "King Boo let her have me all to herself after a while. But not before he…" She stopped and cleared her throat. "What he did to you—it wasn't fair. You shouldn't have to suffer because of some petty grudge."

"Try telling him that," Nathan said bitterly.

"I guess I should've suspected something, too," Peach told him. "When we first arrived, the hotel staff was behaving quite—strangely."

"Don't blame yourself," said Nathan. "Hellen broke King Boo out a year ago without anyone knowing."

Peach's veneer cracked just a little bit, but she pulled herself together in seconds.

"Luigi—had to retreat at first," said Nathan, "because he didn't have a weapon. But now he's coming, okay? He's coming. And he'll be there. Just you wait and see. You'll see. He promised."

As Nathan and Peach spoke, the number of votes on the poll continued to climb.

"Nathan," Peach said after a while. "Can you do something for me?"

"Anything, Your Grace," replied Nathan.

"Two years ago—Mario asked me a very important question, do you remember?"

"Yes," said Nathan.

"Unfortunately, he asked that question in the wrong place at the wrong time. But now…" Peach paused, and there was a slight crack in her voice which she quickly shoved away. "…now, I've had time to think, and—now, I finally have an answer to that question. And the answer is—yes."

"Your Grace…" Nathan began.

"Just—tell Mario, okay? Tell him I said 'yes'. Tell him that I wanna spend the rest of my life with him. Tell him that we can make it work, one way or another."

"I will," Nathan slowly replied. "I swear to you, I will. He'll be so overjoyed that you've accepted his proposal. Can you see him, Your Grace? Can you see him, smiling and jumping for joy and saying, 'Wah-hoo!'? Because you've made him the happiest plumber on Earth."

Peach giggled, a blush rising to her cheeks.

"I'm gonna be with him soon," she said happily.

"Yes, you are, Your Grace," said Nathan. "Yes, you are."

"Nathan?"

"Yeah?"

"I know you were lying about Luigi earlier." Nathan's heart dropped at Peach's words. "I know you were just trying to make me feel better. But I know the truth. Luigi—he didn't make it, did he?"

"No," Nathan replied. "He fought his hardest, though."

"I know. And Mario—did they…?"

"I wish I could lie to you, Your Grace."

"No matter," Peach said soothingly. "I'll see him again soon enough."

"Oh, Princess—I tried to help him. My friends tried to help him…"

"You did everything you could."

"But it wasn't enough," sniffled Nathan. "We let him down. We let you down, we let Mario down, we let Professor Gadd down, we let your Toad retainers down…" He couldn't stop his sudden tears.

"Hey," said Peach. "Hey, Nathan."

Nathan composed himself and studied her, sitting straight and dignified in her chair.

"It's okay," she told him. "It's okay—it's okay. Listen—some…"

The call hung up before Peach could finish.

Nathan sat there in silence, unmoving, unfeeling—uncaring.

The final seconds of the poll ticked away.

The results were tallied.

Only 3% of the Boos thought that Nathan should be spared. BooGene and Booverly were probably among them.

_I guess I kinda grew on them tonight._

Nathan chose that thought as his final thought, laughing once more as the Boos descended upon him.

**…**

In every last room and suite of the Last Resort and from the video feeds of Nathan and his foolish friends, multitudes of Boos materialized, floating before the camera and waving hello.

King Boo waved back.

A night of fun had sadly come to an end. But it worked in favor of the Master of Illusions. All of his foes had been eliminated in one fell swoop, and the morale of anyone else who dared oppose him was irrevocably broken. From here, conquest of the world—and maybe the universe—would be a cinch.

The very thought of it made him throw back his head and laugh.

Hellen stood next to him, once again attired in an elegant gown, her hair in an updo. "Well done," she said admiringly. "_Very_ well done."

King Boo turned to look at her. "I wouldn't have done it without you," he cooed. "I wish we'd met sooner."

"So do I," said Hellen.

"But I'm so glad we met all the same," said King Boo. "Thanks to you, I have everything I've ever wanted. Well—_almost _everything."

Hellen gasped as King Boo knelt before her and pulled out a ring with a small gem on top.

"I never thought I'd have a fan club president," he said, "least of all—a fan club. But you've taken me places I've never been before. Together, we can bring enemies old and new to their knees. Hellen Gravely—will you be my Queen?"

Hellen teared up. "Yes!" she trilled happily. "Yes! A billion yesses!"

King Boo slid the ring onto Hellen's finger, and she jumped into his arms, their mouths colliding in a sultry kiss.

Finally, the engaged couple broke the kiss, gazing happily at the thousands upon thousands of Luigi fans and Luigi mains, hopelessly immobilized in their artistic prisons.

"Good game, everybody," smirked King Boo. He and his fiancée then turned toward the ones reading these very words. "Would _you_ like to play sometime?"

And they both cackled.

**Good Night!**

**Thank you for reading. Happy Holidays!**


End file.
